Tennessee Guerilla Women: Easter Homophobia at the White House

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Easter Homophobia at the White House

PageOneQ reports that some 100 gay families waited in line overnight only to discover that the White House has changed the Easter Egg Roll rules. While the families who stood in line the longest will be permitted to attend the Easter Egg Roll, they will not be allowed to attend the event's opening ceremonies.

The trickster White House has responded in its usual doublespeak, but the homophobic fact remains:

"In years past, with the exact same arrangement of invited guests, those that spent all night outside for tickets were given tickets to the event's opening times. . . This is the first time that no early tickets were distributed to those that waited the longest."

PageOneQ:

The unannounced change means that the families who waited in line the longest, in one case for twenty-four hours, will not be among the visitors at the event's opening ceremonies. The first families in line, who were not part of the LGBT family group, received tickets with an 11:00am entrance time, two hours later than the opening time listed in the White House press release.

Various media reports have publicized participation of lesbian and gay families, including a piece in the New York Times, which ran on April 10th, and media representatives were interviewing families in the line about the small swirl of controversy created by the decision of LGBT families to participate in the annual event. This morning, cameras from approximately half a dozen television stations, including CNN, were on the Ellipse, interviewing families about the decision of LGBT parents to participate.

In a telephone call and email exchange with PageOneQ earlier today, Deputy White House Dana Perino, the Deputy White House Press Secretary told PageOneQ that, "[T]he number of tickets are the same as every year, and that the large group we invited this year is youth volunteers ... and they are coming in the morning. We invite a group like that every year, for instance one or two years ago it was military families. In order to accomodate [sic] all of the people who want to come to the easter egg roll, we stagger the times to ensure maximum enjoyment for everyone."

. . . The Family Pride group, which was located approximately 150 people from the start of the line, received tickets with entry times of 11:30am and later.

. . The egg roll takes place Monday morning on the White House grounds.