Subscribe to Breaking NewsWithers: Olbermann makes a case for same-sex marriage
I’m not a betting man but if I were I would put money down that MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann is going to get a journalism award from a gay organization.
Please don’t run off to your friends yelling that Withers is calling Olbermann gay (I ain’t). His editorial last night, making a case for same-sex marriage, will be remembered and quoted by those fighting for the right to marry.
Using last week’s Proposition 8 vote as an anchor, Olbermann talks to those who voted to close the marriage doors to same-sex couples. The MSNBC anchor wonders why anyone would want to be stingy with commodity that is in such short supply.
“In a time of impermanence and fly-by-night relationships, these people over here want the same chance at permanence and happiness that is your option. They don’t want to deny you yours. They don’t want to take anything away from you. They want what you want—a chance to be a little less alone in the world.”
Can’t really say it better than that. if you believe in the right to marriage, send Olbermann’s message to those in your circle who might be on the fence. If this doesn’t convince them, nothing will.
How can you say he advocates marriage equality when he won’t even call it a Marriage? Who’s fooling who? And as I said the Obama’s substitute for marriage has already been ruled to be discriminatory to gay people. A discriminatory and segregationist policy that singles out gay people is not and will NEVER be the same as equality. THERE ARE NO SUBSTITUTIONS FOR EQUALITY.
Besides which you’re just not being very practical in your rhetoric. I understand that you want to put pressure on the administration, but if you keep misrepresenting their stance you’re just going to be dismissed and not heard.
So what exactly are you campaigning for, Wayne? Full equality in the eyes of the church?
I don’t know about you, but I’m frankly terrified of having the government dictate what we can or cannot believe in, religiously.
Full equality in the eyes of the law and the constitution is right and just. Forcing a religious organization to bless unions it doesn’t believe to be holy is tyrannical censorship and un-American.
I think you miss the part where I repeatedly say that it’s LEGAL and CONSTITUTIONAL equality that he’s advocating, not RELIGIOUS equality.
I couldn’t care less what he thinks some supernatural force “sanctifies” or not, as long as it doesn’t affect the legal and constitutional rights that he advocates.
Frankly, I don’t want “God” to sanctify my union. What right does anyone have to say what religion my union is sacred to? Keep your religion out of my government, please.
Ophidimancer, What part of Obama’s statement don’t you understand? Obama has REPEATEDLY said that he believes marriage is between a man and a woman only! Obama believes gay relationships are NOT sanctified by God, as his relationships to his mind, are. Obama has REPEATEDLY supported civil unions as a substitute for marriage. This policy, as I have said, was already ruled by the Connecticut Supreme Court to be a discriminatory policy against gay people! Obama is not advocating equality, and no matter how much you try, it will NEVER be the same as equality. A marriage is a marriage. Equality is Equality. THERE ARE NO SUBSTITUTES.
Ok, let’s review this again, shall we? Here’s the official Obama/Biden stance on equality for gay couples:
Absolutely. Do I support granting same-sex benefits? Absolutely positively. Look, in an Obama-Biden administration, there will be absolutely no distinction from a constitutional standpoint or a legal standpoint between a same-sex and a heterosexual couple.
This sounds good, right? Notice the specific use of the words “constitutional” and “legal.” It seems to me that he uses these words precisely to specify what he’s talking about so that he can come back later and talk about a kind of marriage that is non-constitutional and non-legal.
The fact of the matter is that under the Constitution we should be granted — same-sex couples should be able to have visitation rights in the hospitals, joint ownership of property, life insurance policies, et cetera. That’s only fair.
It’s what the Constitution calls for. And so we do support it. We do support making sure that committed couples in a same-sex marriage are guaranteed the same constitutional benefits as it relates to their property rights, their rights of visitation, their rights to insurance, their rights of ownership as heterosexual couples do.
Again he reiterates that that, from a legal standpoint, same sex couples are to be treated the same as opposite sex couples. This is a far cry from McCain’s stance, which basically “allows” us to spend thousands of dollars in lawyers fees to enter into contracts that garner us only some of the rights that opposite sex couples get with one document.
This is not a gift, McCain, we can do it already, and it doesn’t work out so well.
No. Barack Obama nor I support redefining from a civil side what constitutes marriage. We do not support that. That is basically the decision to be able to be able to be left to faiths and people who practice their faiths the determination what you call it.
Here’s the line that gets hisses and boos. Again, though, I think the wording here is again very deliberate. Notice how in the first sentence he says they don’t support redefining marriage “from a civil side” and how it’s up to people of faith how they define marriage. This is where that non-legal marriage idea comes in. This is where he’s reassuring the religious that the government isn’t going to come into their places of worship and telling them what to do, rewriting their holy books, etc.
This is good, because the government has nor right doing that. From the legal and constitutional standpoint, however, Biden rightly says that marriage is equal for hetero and homosexual couples.
The bottom line though is, and I’m glad to hear the governor, I take her at her word, obviously, that she think there should be no civil rights distinction, none whatsoever, between a committed gay couple and a committed heterosexual couple. If that’s the case, we really don’t have a difference.
Here again, he repeats the stance of the Obama campaign; that homosexual couples are equal in the eyes of the law to heterosexual couples.
If you’ll remember, the Connecticut Supreme Court said the exact same thing a couple of years ago and left the legislature to decide how to make gay couples equal in the eyes of the law. They chose civil unions. The reports came in, civil unions were not garnering gay couples the rights they were promised by the courts and thus the courts revisited the case and determined that gay couples could not be denied access to marriage.
Honestly, the rest of the country should take this as a lesson, but this does show that civil unions are a stepping stone to marriage equality.
So yes, he’s not quite doing it right, but he definitely does advocate full LEGAL and CONSTITUTIONAL equality for gay and straight couples.
Do you really think that President Elect Obama doesn’t believe in full legal equality for gay couples—
Hello?! Obama has made it crystal clear that he does NOT believe it gay marriage equality. He has stated that fact, He believe marriage is between a man and a woman. Obama has said that REPEATEDLY! Segregation and a “Separate But Equal” policy of forcing gays into a 2nd class marriage status IS NOT EQUALITY!!! The Connecticut Supreme Court has already ruled that the policy of civil unions that Obama supports are in fact DISCRIMINATORY to gay people.
Do you really think that President Elect Obama doesn’t believe in full legal equality for gay couples? Even after he says outright that he’s for the repeal of DOMA, that he thinks Prop 8 is divisive, after Biden said at the debates that an Obama/Biden administration believes in legal and constitutional equality for gay and straight couples?
We’ve elected a President, get over it and work with it. Pressure the administration, don’t misrepresent it.
And yes, I liked Olbermann’s speech here.
Not only is marriage inevitable, but it’s going to be as a result of those around the country that are now taking action. The start of the gay right movement was with some drag queens that got sick and tired of being sick and tired. The birth of Act Up was when Reagan remained silent while many of our brothers died. I think that having marriage taken away may be the wake up call for this generation. It can not be left to the cowardice of the politicians. We can not wait for President Elect to grow a pair and make a statement about what is right and wrong. It is as it always has been, with the people.
Gay marriage is inevitable.
–
Huh? why would you think I thought otherwise? Have you read any of my posts? I actually believe in gay marriage equality, unlike our President elect.
Olbermann’s commentary brought tears to my eyes; step up, black leaders, to make similar entreaties.
I’m sorry, Wayne. I do believe that Withers is right. This is an award winner for sure. It literally brought tears to my eyes, and many others as well, I suspect. Rant and rave all you want. Gay marriage is inevitable.
I tried posting this earlier but to no avail for some reason. So I’ll give it another go. Though I still decry Keith Olbermann’s biased treatment of Hillary Clinton in the primary, I have to admit that now that I’ve seen Kieth’s statement on video (I had only seen written transcripts of his statement earlier) and I admit that he really moved me with his eloquent defense of gay marriage equality. I wish it would have been made before the vote on Prop 8, but I sincerely thank Mr. Olbermann for his efforts.
here is a link to the video:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27652443#27652443
Somehow I am not surprised that ‘Wayne’ has popped his cute lil negative conservative self-loathing head up yet again. And here I hoped his haunting of this site was over for the voting season. Regardless, the only mockery Olberman has ever really done is of conservative whitewashing and outright attacks on our Constitution. You know, that document Bush and friends have done their level best to use for toilet paper?
As for ’self-centered blow-hard’… pot and kettle, Wayne, pot and kettle.
I think Keith Olbermann is a self centered blow hard. But it’s nice to at last see something positive come from the man who has made a mockery of journalism.