Obama elusive on about-face on same-sex marriage

Honestly, if Obama was openly supportive of gay marriage during his campaign, would he have become president? Probably not. He has enough people against him as it is.

Changing people's minds about gay marriage takes a long time, and he probably realizes that - He's active for gay rights and civil unions, and that is pretty brave of him.
To be able to make any changes at all, he needs to be generally well liked, so I don't put it against him that he doesn't support gay marriage.

I don't know, I'm not even American so maybe my opinion is void, but I think we can't expect him to be perfect. He's at least making change by not being homophobic.

 

I never have believed he supports LGBT's and I never will until he does something that conclusively proves to the contrary.

 

You can not believe in gay marriage, but still believe that people in gay relationships have the right to marry.

 

Personally I don't blame President Obama for trying to take a slower route. I mean in politics you have to be liked to get things done and sometimes that means changing the way you act towards certain issues. What does disappoint me is that he used his religious beliefs to back it up. I am a strong believer in the separation, like the democratic party is, and as a democrat Obama should know better than to use such a thing to back up his decisions. It also makes me really sad that a large part of the African American party supports prop. 8 and DOMA, as they were once in the same exact situation (well maybe not exactly but pretty darn close) during the civil rights movement and it's sad that they of all people support taking other peoples rights.

 

This is politics. Plain and simple. This is how it works in politics. I've seen it time and time again, and it will always be this way. You don't succeed at politics by sticking to your convictions, you succeed by pandering to the populist view - specifically the views of the populus who have the power to elect you or not. So if what flies in Illinois doesn't fly across the nation, you find a convenient way to "adjust" your convictions. That's how it goes.

To some this would look like hypocracy, but not in the world of politics. I guess that leaves us to take what we can get. Or, to effect change at the grassroots level so that the populus demands this change - in which case the elected officials will change their positions too.

Funny, I just realized that our leaders are actually followers...

 

I admit, I disagree with Obama on several issues. Including this one, which is important to me.

But I still understand there are, quite literally, bigger fish to fry. I would also like to see the job market improved. And, really, we need to pay off the national debt.

And above all, I believe he's doing a better job than Bush. So it's an improvement.

 

Gay marriage shouldn't be the first issue on his mind of course. He seems gay-friendly enough to me. We'll see what comes of the whole Don't Ask Don't Tell situation.

 

Obama is a flake, it's that simple. He never hid the fact that he opposed gay marriage on a religious grounds during the campaign, but he certainly made it clear he opposed DOMA and Don't Ask Don't Tell. So he got all of us queers to vote for him, and then the second he got into office he dropped us like a hot mess. He does not care about gay people, nor has he ever. I have no hopes that he's going to do a turn around and actually do something for our community like he said.

 

He doesn't give a shit. The majority of people (oops, I meant dumbasses) don't believe in equality. He always dodges it because he knows of his past and how contradicting himself sounds so retarded. I think he's just being a snake. A politician should be brave and never compromise. Civil unions are a fucking compromise. Therefore, by supporting them and not full marriage, he is going with a compromise. He's only doing what the people want him to do and I believe that he's a closeted believer in gay rights. Just wait and see. Still, he shouldn't be such a pussy about it. Either you believe in equality or you don't. It's as simple as that. No ifs, ands, or buts. He really should be a bit more supportive, especially at this time, a turning point in this country. Fuck him.

 

It is so frustrating. I agree that we need to get jobs out of China and back to America, get rid of our debt, and get the heck out of Afghanistan and Iraq..But really, why such resistance to gay marriage? It is GOING to happen, whether the anti-gay people want it to or not. They may have won recent battles, but they are most certainly losing the war. Homophobia is dying. Why not just get it over? Repeal DOMA and DADT. Repeal Prop 8. Stop the bigotry and hatefulness.

It isn't a complex situation like all of America's other challenges that don't really seem to have easy or simple fixes. But the issue of gay rights is SO easy (ok, it would be easier if we had a supermajority in congress still. By the way, Massachusetts, thanks for messing that up!)

There will be no tax hikes if gays can marry. No services will be slashed from the budget. No one will die (unless you get some crazy like that Roeder fellow going into churches and killing people who perform same-sex marriages). There is no exit strategy to devise. All that needs to be done is to change all marriage related laws to be gender-neutral. Easy! Our politicians just need to grow a pair.

 

If public opinion turns, this could go both ways. Take Canada for example. Paul Martin was prime minister around 2003/2004. Earlier he had campaigned on the premise that there would be no gay marriage in Canada and he would take whatever steps necessary to ensure things stayed that way. Public opinion shifted and he changed completely and passed legislation allowing gay marriage.

 

Exactly. Same thing happened in Iowa. In 2006, Governor Culver stated that he would "do whatever possible to protect traditional marriage in Iowa" while campaigning. Fast-forward to the Supreme Court decision in 2009, and he now supports marriage equality.

I personally think that Obama does favor marriage equality, but he is a politician and knows that it is probably not a wise move to come out in favor of it if you want to get elected to the presidency. As public opinion shifts and more states start to allow same-sex marriage over the next few years, I wouldn't be at all surprised for him to change his official stance towards it.

 

Probably been said, but Obama should not allow his religion run his politics. He should do whats best for the people even if his religion does not agree with it. It's against the ideal of separation of church and state.

 

Unfortunately, money talks louder than laws.

 

Re-election*

 

This. I a way, I wish we would change the Presidential election to a single term of office so that the president only has his legacy to think of, not reelection.

 

And if Palin gets elected, we can give up all hope of this country being progressive and wait while it turns to Jesusland (no offense to Christians).

 

Well Palin has about 1.5 million fans on facebook, and she still has a chance on being the main republican candiate for 2012.

 

Here's Obama as a candidate, where he defined marriage as a between a man and a woman and very much in religious terms. This answer was used by the Prop 8 team in their ads, and quite possibly contributed to its success.
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJhQBZ1La0w[/YOUTUBE]
Of course it would have hurt him had he said he believed gay couples should be allowed to marry right now in all 50 states, but he could have acknowledged that there are differences across the country. He was basically saying that those gay couples who were married in Massachusetts and California should only have civil unions. His answer was no different to McCain's.

It's one thing for Obama not to come out in favour, quite another for him to come out against.