Political Science

The ability of President Barrack Obama to maintain his earlier promises concerning gay rights presents him as a consistent leader and facilitates greater social justice for all critical issues for improving the United States image while promoting national development.  Supporting gay rights in todays society brings out the concern of the president with the minority groups and depicts his broad outlook as a democratic leader, who does his best for the sake of the country.  Notably, the presidents support for gay rights can be traced back to his time as the Illinois Senator, when he emphasized on building bridges as the main platform for promoting identity and generating commitment to the states agenda. Adler concurs with political analyst that it is partly out of this consideration that President Barrack Obama received overwhelming support across the nation (Adler, 2009). This paper critically examines the presidents initiatives, the limits and obstacles and assesses his achievements in support for gay rights.

Initiatives by the president concerning gay rights
    Initiatives introduced by the president after assuming office following his victory in the presidential general election in 2007 have further anchored his support for equal rights to all people in the United States. To begin with, the president named Pope Basher, a gay rights activist to the federal government, as a key advisor on issues related to gay rights (Fred, 2009). This initiative came as religious factions heightened their call for people to follow the religious teachings of heterosexuality in the society. The initiative regarding gay rights was seen as a critical message to the nation and the globe too.

    Adam explains that the President Obama further supports implementation of the Employment Non Discrimination Act and emphasized that it should be further expanded to envisage sexual identity (Adam, 2009). Over the last decade, gay people in the society were greatly discriminated for lack of holistic laws in all states. Currently, Sherly indicates that it is only five states that recognize gay rights (Sherly, 2009). As a result, this commitment will be critical in promoting their independence and, indeed, a contribution towards growth and development of the country.

    The president has further initiated a process to remove the highly discriminative policy of dont ask, dont tell in the army (Terry, 2009). The policy employed in the military forces should be based on holistic commitment, sense of duty and individual patriotism as opposed to discrimination. While separating sexuality from the military forces during their operations, this law will further provide the needed image in the military.

    Gay rights initiatives being implemented have had key support from the democrats, who have been very crucial in facilitation of their analysis and implementation. Adam reports that Vice President Joe Biden is working with the president to reinvigorate enforcement of the Mathew Shepherded Act (Adam, 2009).    

Limits and obstacles to executing gay rights authority
    Notably, since President Barrack Obama came to power, his enthusiasm towards fostering gay rights in the nation has been indicated to take a downward shift compared to the time before his election. Adler indicates that this has been due to the key obstacles on his way toward implementing the same powers and legislations (Adler, 2009). While this slow pace has seen great pressure mount on the president, Terry indicates that he is partially arm tied by the congress which must pass different bills before he can ascertain them into law (Terry, 2009). By May 2009, key gay rights bills still remained stalled in the Congress.   

While expressing their freedom of speech in the country, the media and special interest groups have sought to influence the outcome of the different laws relating to gay rights in the nation. To begin with, the media has taken a center stage in bringing to the public key facts and statistics relating to gay rights in the nation. While it is considered a critical tool in educating the public, Adam notes that it has been biased in focusing on key progress of different legislations and focused more on the negative side of the policy progression (Adam, 2009). This has been very critical in that it promotes the wrong perceptions to the community. Faith groups, such as the Catholics, have, on the other hand, strongly emphasized on the need for a religious community that is led by acting on religious teachings and considers gay people to be very immoral.

    While the need to address the problem of gay rights continue generating a major debate in the nation, lack of total support by all democrats harbors major concerns  over the presidents ability to address the problem. Besides, the Republicans are equally divided and the president will require marshal enough support if the rights are to be realized (Fred, 2009). While there appears to be no conflicts in the assimilated strategies, the reports at the grassroots suggest otherwise. With the federal government having enacted none of the national gay rights laws for all the states, the employed strategies are independent and present key conflicts with the local laws. Adler indicates that the independent application of federal gay rights in California has presented the federal government to have failed in its key responsibilities for providing the needed guidance (Adler, 2009).

Achievement and rating of the president
    Though the majority of people belonging to the gay community have indicated the reduced rating of the president towards his commitment in maintain the needed social justice for all, the same notion is indeed far fetched. His consistency has seen the gay community get greater focus at the senate and the national level. This has promoted greater awareness and holistic acceptance in the society. The presidents efforts are therefore well above average and only require greater support by the Congress and the civil society to fully integrate social justice to all gays in the community. Though his strategies are indeed right, they require to be further integrated to the society to gather greater support.

    In conclusion, the discussion represented in this paper supports the thesis statement that the ability of President Barrack Obama to maintain his earlier promises on gay rights presents him as a consistent leader and facilitates greater social justice for all which is very critical in improving the United States portrait while promoting national development. The presidential powers execution is critical in facilitating the countrys ability to assimilate social justice for all.  The initiatives established by the president are indeed very critical, but he must address the key obstacles if gay rights are to be felt fully in the United States. Finally, in concurrence with sociological analysts, leadership requires that all the stakeholders are effectively brought at the negotiating table where new issues are addressed. The president should therefore reach out to the minority groups more, update them constantly on the progress of the gay rights legislations, and incorporate their views at all levels of their development.