President Obama and Same Sex Marriage

Dear Friends,

There is an article on the front page of the paper edition of The New York Times today about President Obama and his position on same sex marriage (here).  There are a number of disturbing aspects to the article.  Read as a whole, it appears that President Obama's actual views on same sex marriage are not what is driving the debate about whether or not he should come out in favor of same sex marriage.

As a candidate for Illinois State Senate he was for same sex marriage and said he would fight for it.  That support sounds like his support for unions where he said he would walk the picket lines with the union members but when the opportunity arose in Wisconsin he was deafeningly silent.  As a candidate for President, he was obscure about his position, but the reality is that if you are not actively fighting for equal rights then you are supporting the status quo which in this case denies the right to marry to same sex couples.

President Obama is out raising money, and he is looking to the GLBT community for financial support.  While some good things have been done during his time in office, like repealing don't ask, don't tell, President Obama can really not be given credit for leading the way in protecting the rights of GLBT persons.  It appears that the calculus for President Obama as to whether or not to support same sex marriage is how much support will he get for endorsing it, how much support will he lose by failing to support it and whether he will net any votes one way or the other.

It seems to me that the change and hope candidate should base decisions on his beliefs.  Ensuring full rights to all people including GLBT persons is an issue about the values that one espouses.  Either you believe that all people deserve equal rights or you don't.  If you do, you should say so and work to bring equal rights to all.  You do not count votes and dollars when making choices that involve your core values.

I believe that President Obama does support equal rights for all.  I certainly hope that he will come out in vigorous support of the New York same sex marriage bill and all others like it and that he will condemn all the hateful laws and state constitutional amendments that would enshrine bigotry by outlawing same sex marriage.

Write to President Obama (here).

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal