Top Obama aides holding conf. call with LGBT members of the DNC on Monday afternoon

Damage control continues.

Two very top White House officials, Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina and Political Director Patrick Gaspard, are holding a “wonderful” conference call on Monday with the LGBT caucus of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). I’ve seen the email, which reads in part:

The call will include important updates on the Administration’s LGBT agenda and how we move forward.

Now, hopefully, those LGBT DNC members are going to actually try to hold the Obama administration accountable and get them to take some real action on the LGBT agenda. These two staffers are both very powerful. So, while they have Messina and Gaspard on the call, those DNC members better get some deliverables from the White House on ENDA, DADT and DOMA. But, the way things go in this town, Gaspard and Messina will probably be screaming at them for the current mess — and the LGBT DNC members won’t push back because they might not get invited to the White House.

This does go to show — and I’ve heard it from many people on other issues — if you want the attention of the Obama White House, you have to play hard ball. For the LGBT community, among other things, that means shutting down the Gay ATM.

No doubt, we’ll hear how great it was that White House people talked to the gays. That might have been a big deal in 1979, not 2009.

P.S. Anyone know who is on the LGBT caucus of the DNC?

P.S.S. Don’t forget, Maine will be holding a referendum this November, pushed by the Catholic Church, to repeal the new marriage equality law. Support “Maine Freedom to Marry,” the campaign to defeat the right-wing’s effort to steal the rights of same-sex couples again. In Maine, every dollar matters, especially the early ones. Help save marriage equality. (Read our post about the Maine campaign here.)

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