Calling for an end to “petty grievances” and “worn out dogmas,” President Barack Obama addressed a vast global audience, taking the oath of office as the 44th President of the United States and the first person of color to lead the nation from the highest office in the land.

There was no specific mention of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community in his inaugural address, though Obama continuously included it throughout his campaign, and even in the addresses leading up to the Jan. 20 inauguration. Instead, there were many broadly worded references that could be interpreted to apply to any number of conflicts facing Americans.

“On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord,” said Obama, early in his address. “On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.”

“The time has come,” said Obama, “to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”

While there was nothing specific to the GLBT agenda in the inaugural program, there was considerable attention given to the invocation and benediction. That’s because Obama invited evangelist Rick Warren, who supported a California constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in November.

In a later interview, Warren included same-sex marriage in the same category as incest and pedophilia.

Warren’s invocation asked for forgiveness for Americans “when we fight each other” and “civility in our attitudes even when we differ.”

Civil rights activist Joseph Lowery, who delivered the benediction, prayed that Americans learn to turn “to each other, and not on each other.”

Lowery was known to be very supportive of equal rights for gays.

He said recently, in an interview with MSNBC, that he “never said I support gay marriage,” but added that, “I support gay rights, and I support civil unions,” and he opposes putting “into law any discriminatory action against people because of race, ethnicity or sexual orientation.”

In his benediction, closing the inauguration, Lowery prayed: “In the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance.”

Religious clergy got considerable attention throughout the inaugural weekend, thanks to the Warren controversy. Many news reports heralded the inclusion of openly gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson to deliver the invocation for an inaugural concert on the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial Sunday.

But viewers tuning in to watch that concert Sunday never saw Robinson’s invocation. When inquiries were made as to why such a prominently anticipated moment was left out of the broadcast, the broadcasting company for the event – HBO – pointed the finger at the Presidential Inaugural Committee.

Eventually, an Inaugural Committee spokesperson acknowledged that the committee itself had directed HBO not to broadcast Robinson’s invocation.

According to politico.com, committee communications director Josh Earnest said: “We had always intended and planned for Rt. Rev. Robinson’s invocation to be included in the televised portion of yesterday’s program. We regret the error in executing this plan – but are gratified that hundreds of thousands of people who gathered on the mall heard his eloquent prayer for our nation that was a fitting start to our event.” MSNBC reported that HBO planned to show a videotape of the entire concert – with Robinson’s invocation – on the National Mall on Tuesday and on HBO Jan. 24 and 25.

HBO issued a statement saying the exclusion of Robinson’s invocation was “due to a miscommunication” with the Inaugural Committee.

The Robinson invocation, posted at episcopalcafe.com, called for compassion for people with AIDS, and anger “at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.”

Robinson indicated in interviews before the weekend that he believes the inauguration committee planned to include him in activities even before the controversy erupted over the invitation to Warren to deliver the invocation at the swearing in ceremony.

Exclusion and inclusion

Despite the absence of an explicit mention of gays in the inauguration ceremony and the concert broadcast, there was much more visibility for the GLBT community in this inaugural than in any previous one.

At the Lincoln Memorial concert gathering, Obama included mention of gays as part of the diversity of America – much as he did throughout his campaign.

Talking about the hope he feels from “Americans of every race and region and station” who were gathering in the nation’s capitol to celebrate the new administration, Obama called on the country to “recognize ourselves in one another and bring everyone together – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents; Latino, Asian, and Native American; black and white, gay and straight, disabled and not …”

The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington performed “My Country, Tis of Thee” at Sunday’s Lincoln Memorial concert, with performers Josh Groban and Heather Headley. Chorus artistic director Jeff Buhrman called inclusion of the chorus “another significant historic moment that will put a face and give a voice to gay equality.”

Even before Tuesday, a GLBT television viewer could tell that this was going to be a very different inaugural just by watching CNN. The cable news network interviewed the lesbian couple who accompanied the Obama family on a train from Philadelphia to Washington on Saturday. The interviewer, Don Lemon, asked them a number of questions to elicit their views about what the new Obama administration will mean for GLBT people.

For GLBT visibility and inclusion, this week’s inaugural activities were a series of invisible leaps.

There were openly gay and lesbian attendees sitting in coveted seats Tuesday – on the podium of the presidential swearing in with only a few hundred other high-profile dignitaries and celebrities. But the invites were last-minute and unpublicized. The Lesbian and Gay Marching Band was an official contingent in the inaugural parade for the first time ever, but major networks went to commercial just before it arrived in front of the reviewing stand. An openly gay member of the clergy delivered the invocation for the inaugural’s highly publicized Lincoln Memorial concert, but his prayer was omitted from the national broadcast.

Perhaps the most high-profile and visible moment for GLBT people during the events was the inclusion of a lesbian couple in the entourage of “everyday Americans” that traveled with the Obama family by train from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., on Saturday.

The couple – Lisa Hazirjian and her partner Michelle Kaizer from Cleveland – was interviewed on CNN Saturday night after they got off the train. They told the live national television audience that they had been able to have “conversations” with the Obamas.

The couple was also interviewed with another invited rider, an Iraq War veteran, for a videoblog by the Cleveland Plain Dealer. They said Obama visited informally with each guest on the train and that they talked about the weather and the food on the train.

Rock performer Melissa Etheridge and openly gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson were last-minute invited guests on the podium for the swearing-in ceremony Tuesday. In his blog, Robinson’s indicated he was seated in the sixth row but that his partner, Mark Andrew, was not invited. Robinson estimated he was “about 30 feet” from President Obama as he was being sworn in, and called the opportunity “an astounding honor.”

Etheridge told an audience at the Out for Equality concert Tuesday night that she received a phone call just two days earlier from U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), “inviting myself and my two oldest children” to the podium. Feinstein served as chairman of the Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.

Newly inaugurated President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama smiled and waved as the Lesbian and Gay Band marched by their reviewing stand at 6:30 Tuesday night. The band was the 80th contingent in a 103-group procession that marched up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House in celebration of the 44th president’s inauguration.

Viewers watching C-SPAN saw it; viewers tuned into MSNBC or CNN saw their broadcasts go to commercial just seconds before the band arrived.

An Out for Equality concert, sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and a host of other national gay organizations drew a sold out crowd to the Mayflower Hotel but drew only one dignitary’s attendance.

But the Equality concert – with its star-studded playbill – was jam-packed with enthusiastic revelers in a ballroom at the historic Mayflower Hotel in downtown Washington on Tuesday night.

Despite having been embroiled in a controversy by defending President Obama’s choice of evangelist RWarren to deliver the inaugural invocation, Etheridge received a rousing ovation when she took to the stage.

“Wow! This is the place to be, right? What a day, huh? What a day!” she said.

Etheridge started playing immediately and did not mention Warren explicitly when she spoke to the audience.

“Finally, the concept of unity is coming together,” said Etheridge, at one point. “Those old walls – the us and them stuff – they’re going away.”

In a live interview on The Daily Show Tuesday night, Robinson said he did have occasion to run into Warren during inaugural activities, during a worship service Tuesday morning. Robinson said he greeted Warren and that Warren “was very kind to me.” Just before they exited to the inaugural ceremony, said Robinson, Robinson told Warren he was praying for him.

“Do you feel like you were brought to the inauguration to stem criticism because of Rick Warren’s anti-gay marriage positions or do you think you were going to be a part of this anyway?”

“I think I was going to be a part of this all along,” noting he had several conversations with Obama on the campaign trail in New Hampshire and that he had advised the campaign on GLBT issues “behind the scenes.”

Etheridge also shared that she had spoken with California Attorney General Jerry Brown earlier in the week.

“And Jerry Brown is very, very confident that, in March, Proposition 8 will be overturned,” she said.

Proposition 8, the California constitutional amendment banning gay marriage that was passed by voters last November, is before the state supreme court. The court is expected to hear arguments in the case in March and render a decision within 90 days thereafter.

Etheridge recalled, too, that it was 1993 that she came out publicly, during a GLBT inaugural celebration at the National Press Club during President Bill Clinton’s first inauguration activities.

“And 16 years later, I was on a [inauguration] platform!” exclaimed Etheridge. “We’ve come a long way.”

An Etheridge recording, “God is in the People,” was included on an official inaugural CD+DVD of Obama speeches being sold by the inaugural committee, with songs by 17 recording artists.

Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese, who watched the swearing in from HRC headquarters, introduced Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and his wife and openly gay daughter to the concert audience. Solmonese told the audience that Patrick “has been heroic in safeguarding marriage equality in Massachusetts.”

Patrick told the audience that the success in Massachusetts came “because people made a claim on their government.”

“I’m here,” said Patrick, “to ask you to make a claim on your government.”

One very early indication that making that claim won’t be as hard as it was during the previous administration: The new Obama White House, very early after the swearing in Tuesday, put up its new WhiteHouse.gov website. The website includes a link to its “Agenda” at the top and the first link from there is for “Civil Rights” and its first subhead deals with “Support for the LGBT Community.”