"How'm I doin'?"  That was the catchphrase used by Ed Koch back when he was Da Mayor of New Yawk.  I'm resurrecting it now, because of a post I made waaaaaaaaay back in November 2008, on what President Obama might reasonably be expected to do in return for the massive support he got from the gay and lesbian communities during the election.

In other words, it's report card time.  Here we go:

1.  Lift the immigration ban on HIV-positive people.  This was started at the end of President Bush's second term in office, but left uncompleted.  It took nearly a year for President Obama to clear the final hurdles -- mainly, inaction on the part of the Department of Homeland Security -- but as of January 2010, people with HIV would no longer be turned back on arrival in this country.  This ban was a relic of the Jesse Helms era; with his death, lifting the ban was so politically inert even a staunch Republican could do it.  But...it really shouldn't have taken a full year to get this task completed.  It's one of those things where a memo from the President was all that was needed.  So I'll give Obama an A-minus/B-plus on this one.

2.  Pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).
3.  Repeal the military ban on open gay and lesbian servicemembers ("don't ask, don't tell" or DADT).  I'm taking these two at once, because there's substantial movement on both of them right now.

ENDA would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of conditions (like race, sex, religion, and national origin) that employers cannot use to refuse employment or terminate employment.  The importance of ENDA is not just that it would bar workplace discrimination against gay men and lesbians; it would also bar workplace discrimination against transgendered people.  This latter is what is known as "an inclusive ENDA", and has been a major cause for the transgender community and their supporters.  As of right now, hearings in both the House and the Senate have been held, but the bill has not been voted out of committee.

DADT was the "compromise" accepted by President Clinton in an attempt to allow gay men and lesbians to serve in the armed forces.  The bill's biggest problem was that, in exchange for serving, gay and lesbian service members were forced to continue to closet themselves -- in effect, living a lie and keeping secrets from their comrades in arms.

The bill was also supposed to reduce the number of gay men and lesbians discharged from the service due to their homosexuality.  Unfortunately, from the beginning, the numbers of those discharged because of their sexuality increased, and remained high up until the September 11 attacks.  While this might not pose a problem in terms of combat readiness in peacetime, the country soon found itself fighting two wars -- in Iraq and in Afghanistan -- where not only numbers mattered, but also where having skilled Arabic-language speakers and translators also mattered.  Under DADT, the armed forces were losing such skilled linguists at precisely the time their services were needed most.

Senate hearings on ending the policy are currently being held, while House hearings have not currently been scheduled.  Growing public opinion in favor of allowing open gay men and lesbians serve in the military is being joined by opinions from both retired and active military officers, including the current head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the current Secretary of Defense.  It is considered extremely likely that DADT will be repealed as part of the next appropriations bill for the Defense Department.

So what grade does the President get on these?  He has voiced his support for both the passage of ENDA and the repeal of DADT.  His Defense Secretary and his Joint Chiefs head have been allowed to give testimony in favor of DADT repeal.  While his steps have not been bold ones, he has at least made them.  And at least both measures are on the Congressional radar.  I'll give Obama a C on this one.

4.  Repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).  All through his campaign, Obama said that while he personally favored civil unions, it should be left to the states to decide on legalizing same-sex marriage.  It's a wimpy response, to be sure, but not one that he is alone in making.  And while it's all well and good -- after all, defining what makes a legal marriage has always been a state power, not a federal one -- the big problem with DOMA is that it does define marriage on the federal level, as far as federal benefits are concerned.

I'm sure you've all heard the simplistic argument:  With a same-sex couple of 20 years' standing, should one partner die, the other is barred from Social Security survivor benefits, not to mention other federal pension benefits and tax breaks.  With an opposite-sex couple of one month's standing, in the same situation there is no question of the surviving partner receiving full benefits.

The logic is almost elegantly simple:  If your state says you are legally married, the federal government -- which does not have the power to define marriage -- has no right to say you are not.

This is, alas, not a priority item at any level right now.  Yet it's probably the most important item of them all -- repealing a gross federal overreach into the area of defining legal marriage, and assuring that all legally-married couples are treated equally in the eyes of the law.

Since there's no visible movement on this -- not even the hint of a rumor of a suggestion -- I have to give Obama an F on this one.