Subscribe to Breaking NewsWithers: “Gay brothers and sisters”
, contributing editor, 365Gay Blog 08.28.2008 10:55pm EDT
Puts the same-sex marriage debate out there. Realizes we can be on different sides but that it hurts no one to make sure gay couples have the rights straight couples take for granted.
The way Obama handled the same-sex marriage issue disappointed me. It was in a list of a variety of things presented as “we disagree about A, so let’s work on B instead”. I think it showed a lack of leadership and loyalty, and I see it as a sign that he’s not that willing to fight for us on principle when it gets tough. This is 2008. On nearly half this continent you can get a same-sex marriage, like my husband and I did. So when a Democrat speaks about same-sex marriage, I’m looking for something new and inspiring. When Obama spoke about it in this speech, I expected something that would fit in with the overall theme of “change” and show the leadership he did in much of the rest of the speech. But what I got was more of the same 1990s nonsense that it is somehow reasonable to be against same-sex marriage, and that such a stand is actually compatible with being against discrimination. This from a guy whose parents came from different races, a thing that not so long ago was illegal. This from a guy who invokes the 1963 March on Washington, organized by openly gay Bayard Rustin, and where King made his famous speech. Compare Obama’s weak statement “I know there are differences…” to King’s straightforward 1958 statement “When any society says that I cannot marry a certain person, that society has cut off a segment of my freedom.” 50 years later, and Obama can’t even say the same words King did? I just don’t want to see queer people used only when it is convenient, but that’s what I see decade after decade in the Democratic party, and I don’t see Obama changing that. So while I do regard this as a historic speech that will be long-remembered for a lot of other reasons, it’s certainly a disappointingly missed opportunity on the issue of same-sex marriage. A lot of queer people are working on his campaign, and for Democrats generally, and I expect them to aggressively push him on this issue.
ReplyRandy, I respectfully disagree with you.
I thought the “brothers and sisters” comment was rather courageous considering that there is actually a huge contingent of Christofascists out there who will use it against him. “Brothers and sisters” equates us more than most other political speeches. Most politicians who are hungry for votes don’t even give us THAT much.
In his 1958 speech, King was referring to the misogynation laws still on the books. If he meant same-sex relationships at all he would have been considered crazy.
In California, we are seeing upwards of fifteen thousand people going door-to-door so that people will vote “Yes” on Proposition 8 and forever squash our right to get married. They keep chanting “We are not bigots or homophobes!!”
But they are, Randy, they are!
Believe me, they will do anything to achieve theocracy: even violence in the form of silence about gay bashing as a result of their rhetoric.
Obama’s statement was as forthright as he could make it. As it stands, he’ll be denounced by too many people.
ReplySen. Obama will not be a champion of equal rights for GLBT Americans. His repeating his long-held stance recently that as “a Christian” he believes that marriage is between one man and one woman signals his intention to legislate based on his narrow understanding of what it means to be religious and/or a Christian. Haven’t we had enough of that?
Further, the fact that he erased the words ‘Gay & Lesbian’ from the Democratic Platform was as unnecessary as it was cruel.
His embrace (literally as well as figuratively when they were on stage together) of Mr. McClurkin and other anti-gay gospel singers in South Carolina in October of last year was a blatant political calculation designed to garner support in the African-American community of that state at the expense of GLBT people everywhere.
We must pay closer attention to what he does and not get lost in his empty rhetoric.
Sen. Obama continues to speak of change for everyone but the GLBT community. Evidently we are not the ones he has been waiting for.
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