Obama Supports Gay Marriage Rights

[fireheart17]

It's an election year. He's running for a 2nd presidential term. Of course he's supporting that. He wants to get re-elected! How obvious can that be?
In an election year, politicians will say anything to get a better chance of winning an election.
What he said doesn't hold a whole lot of water.

Not necessarily. There are bigger priorities on any presidential/PM/premier candidate than gay marriage. Education, health, defence, welfare, economics.
Those are more important than promising gay marriage.

[HYHYBT]

There's risk... but there is a time when you can avoid a plain, direct answer when "everybody knows" already, and a time when continuing with that just makes you look bad. And that point, for Obama's marriage position, had passed. It would have been nice if keeping it up could have held though the election, but it just wasn't going to work. And the "[insert loudly outspoken marriage opponent here]'s position is the same as Obama's" nonsense was really getting old.

As far as risk: the question is, will this encourage gay people and supporters, not just to vote come November, but to donate and campaign enough to bring in more people who don't care all that much than are lost by spelling out what everybody already knew?

[BlaqueKatt]

If he doesn't actually put any real effort forth in creating equality, clearly he doesn't support it that much.

and what exactly do you think he should have the ability to do?

If he tries to pass any kind of equality bill the republican majority will make sure it never passes, the president isn't superman, and he doesn't have magical powers, look at how difficult it was to get the budget, and some form of health care reform passed.

[Greenday]

and what exactly do you think he should have the ability to do?

If he tries to pass any kind of equality bill the republican majority will make sure it never passes, the president isn't superman, and he doesn't have magical powers, look at how difficult it was to get the budget, and some form of health care reform passed.

He could try anyway. At least show he truly gives a crap instead of just pulling some obvious BS political stunt.

[Rapscallion]

It's an election year. He's running for a 2nd presidential term. Of course he's supporting that. He wants to get re-elected! How obvious can that be?
In an election year, politicians will say anything to get a better chance of winning an election.
What he said doesn't hold a whole lot of water.

It's an election year. GOP presidential candidates are running for a presidential term. Of course they're coming out against gay marriage. They want to be elected! How obvious can that be?
In an election year, politicians will say anything to get a better chance of winning an election.
What they said doesn't hold a whole lot of water.

Just an alternative view. However, from my perspective over here, Obama has far more justification in the real world for his views than the religious right have for theirs. It's a far tougher path to take to pander towards love than hate and demonising.

Rapscallion

[Gravekeeper]

Being for gay marriage isn't what I would call politically advantageous in the US. So I wouldn't call this a BS political stunt.

[Jetfire]

I suspect coming out publicly on the side of Gay Marriage will help solidify further one part of his voter demographic (and yes alienate another part; but the alienated part would be a group that probably would never vote for him ever). Time will tell if he pulled more to his side than he pushed away.

While it would be nice if he had been able to do more for Gay Marriage rights in general, it feels (to me) that the US in general is quickly getting to the tipping point where it will happen anyways, by legislation or by court ruling, despite the efforts of some groups and some states. So him announcing it now will just be another nudge to towards that tipping point more than anything.

And while it isn't Gay Marriage, he has done a lot for that community already, by repealing DADT.

From the comment above, it also seems like he's realized that "separate but equal" solutions aren't going to work, especially with the generations coming to age and coming into power now.

[Slytovhand]

If the couple getting married want to make their god party to that contract, they are welcome to do so.

I'm pretty sure you can legally force someone to be party to a contract without their direct consent.... when did God say "Yeah, I'll be in on this contract"???

[quote=AndaraGenerally speaking, all of the people who support gay marriage are already voting for him, and a large percentage of the black community tends to fall out against gay equality (which is incredibly ironic, when you think about it),..[/quote]

Nope - I don't see the irony. Black people can be just as homophobic and discriminatory as any other group... For that matter, I could fully understand why the oppressed want to be on the oppressing side for a change. (not to mention, a lot of that demographic would be quite religious - it's part of what held the community together).


Good for Obama. As one person said above - it's refreshing to have a politician finally say outright what they think and believe, instead of equivocating and not taking a stance.

[lordlundar]

Not necessarily. There are bigger priorities on any presidential/PM/premier candidate than gay marriage. Education, health, defence, welfare, economics.
Those are more important than promising gay marriage.

When you think about it it's a brilliant political manoeuvre.

While Romney is railing at this relatively non-issue, Obama can argue how the GOP and Romney himself have actively hindered improving the country because of partisan BS and railing against relative non-issues.

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

Man, some of the conservatives on my facebook list are EXTREMELY pissed at this news.

[Andara Bledin]

Thankfully, while there are some wacky repressive conservatives on my list, I haven't seen much but support for this declaration. Takei had a lovely reply comment on his blog, too.

^-.-^

[KnitShoni]

Nope - I don't see the irony. Black people can be just as homophobic and discriminatory as any other group... For that matter, I could fully understand why the oppressed want to be on the oppressing side for a change. (not to mention, a lot of that demographic would be quite religious - it's part of what held the community together).

Exactly. Please stop pretending homophobia is so much more rampant among Black people than any other group.

[Andara Bledin]

First off, nobody mentioned homophobia. Not all social conservatives fighting to deny marriage equality are homophobic. Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by ignorance and stupidity.

Second, it's a fairly well-supported statistic that blacks are more socially conservative than other races.

2010 Article at Conservative Crusader

While blacks voted 70% in favor of Proposition 8, and Hispanics 53%, only 49% of whites voted in favor, hence, “marriage was saved in California by Hispanics and African Americans.”

Article at CNN

Though they hew heavily Democratic, African-Americans are generally conservative on social issues like gay marriage.

Article at Wikipedia

While 52% of Democrats support same-sex marriage, only 30% of black Democrats do. In 2008, though Democrats overwhelmingly voted (64%) against the California ballot proposition banning gay marriage, blacks overwhelmingly approved (70% in favor) it, more than any other racial group.

It's fairly obvious that in California (which tends to be more socially liberal in general) that blacks are overwhelmingly anti-equality and the highest percentage of any racial group.

^-.-^

[Nekojin]

First off, nobody mentioned homophobia. Not all social conservatives fighting to deny marriage equality are homophobic. Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by ignorance and stupidity.

Second, it's a fairly well-supported statistic that blacks are more socially conservative than other races.

2010 Article at Conservative Crusader

Article at CNN

Article at Wikipedia

It's fairly obvious that in California (which tends to be more socially liberal in general) that blacks are overwhelmingly anti-equality and the highest percentage of any racial group.

Just to be clear, I don't think that Andara's suggesting that someone's melanin content or ancestry are causing them to be bigoted. It's more likely that it is a black cultural issue, than a racial issue.

[Andara Bledin]

Also, the only reason it even came up was because somebody suggested that his making a definitive statement was an obvious choice when the truth is that it will probably hurt his numbers in November more than they will help.

^-.-^