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BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
J
ustin was sitting with his boyfriendon the Christopher Street piers ona Friday afternoon when he wasasked for his view of Barack Obama’spresidency. “I wouldn’t say good or bad,”said the 16-year-old, as the couple sat wrapped in each other’s arms. “He’s kindof in the middle.”Last summer, Justin had a job in a clothing store. Now he cannot find a summer job, and that matters becausehe is saving for college. Not surpris-ingly, he was most concerned with theeconomy, but also the two wars the US ismired in. He wants Obama to do “thingsthat are generally good for us, to keep usout of war, to get things back on track,the way things used to be.”Issues such as gay marriage can wait until “we’re financially safe. We have todo one thing at a time,” Justin said.Similarly, Kenn Nadel, 53, wantsObama to fix the economy. “I don’t know how quickly he can get things back ontrack,” said Nadel, who worked in mag-azine publishing until he was laid off in April. “The public in general needs to feellike they can spend more money.”Nadel was heading to Folsom Street East, a June 21 leather party on West 28th Street, with two friends, Ed Collier,51, and Collier’s partner, Adam Scott, 45.Collier first mentioned “our reputationoverseas” as important when asked for his view of Obama. “Our last president really screwed us up overseas,” he said.In two dozen interviews on the street inManhattan and Brooklyn, gay, lesbian,and transgendered New Yorkers gener-ally first discussed the economy, health-care, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,and issues that are not specific to thequeer community when asked to evalu-ate Obama. While they expected action on gay issues, most were willing to wait untillater in Obama’s term for results, andonly two saw such issues as their pri-mary concern. For some, if they hadto choose, they might not select a gay choice.“As an HIV-positive gay man, I wouldrather have healthcare than gay mar-riage,” said Manny Rodriguez, 42, as hestood outside the office of Make the RoadNew York in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neigh- borhood. That contrasts with angry criticismon a few gay blogs over the past month. The bloggers have pilloried the WhiteHouse for what they view as its inactionon repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, theDefense of Marriage Act, and enactinga federal law that would ban discrimi-nation based on sexual orientation andgender identity. While the blogs repre-sent a segment of the community, it isnot clear how large that segment is. It isequally unclear that the agenda the blogsare pressing on the White House is onethe broader community would choose.“I think for me, but I think for a lot of the community, there’s a sense of betray-al,” said John Aravosis, editor of ameri-cablog.com, one of the “top gay blogs,” ashe put it. “Betrayal comes from friends. You don’t feel a sense of betrayal frompeople you didn’t respect… I think thecommunity felt a bond with him.”In addition to his blog, Aravosis has been widely quoted in the mainstreampress, where he represents his viewsand the community’s view as one andthe same. In an interview, Aravosis wascombative when pressed on the extent to which his views were shared by the broader community. He eventually hungup the phone saying he had to return to
Some gay bloggers are asking whether President BarackObama, seen in last year’s iconic Shepard Fairey poster,offers more hype than hope.
■
POLITICS
The Blogs Versus Obama
Web opinion leaders are critical;Is the gay street following?
BLOGS VS OBAMA
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