My family has been working, door knocking in states around the region, for President Elect Obama since that cold January day he announced he was running for President. Our family has saved money and taken time off of work and school (for our 10 year old daughter) to come to DC for the inauguration. I was truly horrified this morning as I heard on the radio that Rick Warren was going to provide the Invocation.

Opening the inauguration with Rick Warren not only makes it painfully clear that our family is not welcome at the inauguration it also means that we are deeply concerned about our safety. The hate speech that comes weekly from the mouth of Mr. Warren creates an environment of hate that makes it safe not only to say horrifying things but to promote hate crimes themselves. Perhaps you have missed the reports by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and recent FBI numbers but hate crimes are on the rise not the decline and promoting hate is the last thing we need in our nation.

My spouse is a school teacher she teachers 5th graders in the Chicago area and each year she teaches about the civil rights movement. One of her students who is active at an organization I know President-Elect is very familiar with and whose founder has been a long time support of the President-Elect -- Family Focus – this student has recently come to class talking about the intersection of marginalization. She wanted to know how lesbian and gay people respond when they are called names, she said she knew people in her family who are gay or lesbian and that family members sometimes talk behind their back or exclude them at church and to her this seemed very painful and confusing. The last question she had about this was yesterday when in class she said “why do gay people support Obama if he doesn’t support them getting married?” The response was to talk about the complexities of social movements (specifically divisions regarding King’s expansion of civil rights to address issues of poverty and human rights). That said this is a time for President Elect to show this African American 5th grader in Chicago what it means to lead: to step up and not back, to include, not exclude, and open the house to all the nation’s peoples not simply the “chosen” few.

I hope to hear how President-Elect Obama will ensure that our family is welcomed and safe at what we had hope to be an exciting day of hope and community. I hope it does not become a day of hate and exclusion.