BREAKING: Obama Embraces Marriage Equality

That's why I believe, personally, that a civil union ban would fail if challenged in most cases.

 

The Court has sometimes held that the 14th amendment does apply certain rights to the states. (For example, the First Amendment says "Congress shall make no law" which strictly read only prohibits the federal government from abridging the five freedoms therein, but since its ratification, the Court has held that states may not do such things either.) The process is called nationalization.

I think that it is possible (but unlikely at this time) that the Court could rule that opposite-sex-only marriage is a violation of Equal Protection and nationalize the right to same-sex marriage.

Furthermore, I think that federal legislation could derive constitutionality from the Equal Protection Clause although certainly not from the powers enumerated in Article I.

Not unless the standard applied were strict scrutiny, I feel. I think the number one battle for LGBT litigants is to persuade the appellate courts to apply that standard.

 

What I'm really curious to see is how this all plays out. DOMA is in the courts. Obama is now supportive. Several other court cases are playing up to SCOTUS, eventually. I'm sure eventually something will come around on the national stage that supports equal rights, but to what extent and in what manner?

 

I think it will be through the courts. The young are more favorable to LGBT rights in general. The older are less favorable. The rest is time and math. On the other hand, we've seen some positive things out of the courts before we expected to.

It depends on the level of scrutiny applied. The courts recognize that these laws treat LGBT people as lesser human beings. They simply have stated, at least on a few issues, that democracy permits those iniquities. Right now, all you have to do is say that these discriminatory laws advance a legitimate state interest, and--sometimes, when the courts are feeling frisky--that the laws are narrowly tailored enough to serve that interest. We have yet to get to strict scrutiny, which is where I think we need to be at for marriage equality to become a reality in the US generally.

 

I would keep in mind that this IS a game of politics. his decision DOES NOT reflect his decency as a person, but his ultimate goal of winning a second term. Its not that he doesnt support gay rights, but if he tried to override this, Republicans would be jumping down his throat (again) and he would probably lose the election. I dont know about you, but he seems hell of a lot better for our rights and other things than Mitt Romney, who would probably repeal what little progress we've made.

 

I am very grateful to the President for saying what he did.

 

Well around 49% of black americans are against gay marriage yet still Obama would still get the vast majority of the Black vote yet of course there would be an decrease in number of black people voting due to the reasons you stated.

Gay marriage: Black voters remain divided - Joseph Williams - POLITICO.com

Obama could certainly win yet his win may not be as big as the previous election in 2008.

Yes announcing Gay marriages is an very big step and more and more Americans than before do approve of Gay Marriages

 

I woke up to this news this morning (I live in South Africa). Very nice of him to say. I'm quite interested to know exactly why he said it.

 

I have felt that he always held this position but has waited for public opinion to catch up until he made it known.

 

Now I just need to find a man to marry!!!!! This is just AWESOME news.

 

I think he's probably felt this way for a while ( it 'evolved')... Its going to be a close race. I think he'll win again but by a smaller margin. But a win's a win.

 

Obama's statement has led to New Zealand's Prime Minister stating that he isn't opposed to marriage equality, too! This is excellent, because his previous record on this hasn't been too good... now hopefully this will give the extra push that is needed for it to pass here as it would be down to a conscience vote in parliament.

 

On Channel 4 News last night they actually had quite a long piece on this, and also pointed out that within hours of the announcement Obama's campaign coffers has increased by US$2.5 million and were still increasing - of course being British TV the two people they were interviewing said something along the lines of "this shows how much support there is on this issue" and "Obama said it for the money that he knew he'd get if he said it"....

One interesting point on their blog http://blogs.channel4.com/matt-frei...rriage-a-money-spinning-electoral-gamble/1253

- Looks like the baby steps our previous government did in working towards equality achieved the same effect - going straight out for the position was never going to wash but all the small steps along the way now mean all three main parties (or at least their leaders) here support equal marriage rights - something you wouldn't have expected just ten years ago!

 

Anyone else watching Obama on The View? I mean he's saying nothing we haven't heard before, in other words he's not saying he will take the fight against DOMA, but in a way I'm not surprised. He could very well still take the fight ONCE elected.

But he did make the point that him and Romney are different, Elisabeth asked him if he'd still leave it to the States, and he piped up saying Romney won't leave it to the states, that the amendment he wants to impose is on a federal level, while Obama does want to leave it to the State. So I mean even though I think he should fight it on a federal level, I respect him for still not trying to just enforce it.

 

As much a I love that he finally came out and said it already, and that he said it before he got re-elected, It still bothers the hell out of me that he believes it should be left to the states to decide. Way to pussy out of actually doing something about it.

I'm pretty sure that if a president said "I'm against slavery, but eh, let the states decide on the issue" people would be mad as hell about it. Yes, I get it, you can't rock the boat too much in politics and you have to play your cards right... blah, blah, blah. What bothers me is that the whole LGBT community seems to be more than content with the whole thing. But maybe that's just my radical self.

Either way, his statement will have a significant impact not only in the US, but also all around the world. It is a great step, but not even close to where we should be.

 

He could do something after election, there is only so much you can do in politics prior to an election if you still want to be elected. I know I know it's pussyfooting but it's still politics.

 

Whether he believes in it or not, I personally see him making the announcement as a sort of political stunt in order to gain more votes, and unfortunately it seems to be working

 

Gain votes? I don't think so, not in America anyway.

Obama was forced out of this "closet" by Biden's slip-up, so he's certainly not doing it to garner votes. If anything, both their moves are sincere given how many swing states he just threw away for November. Gay-friendly policies are not popular political moves.

 

Well, a significant amount of the American left and centre-left became pretty disillusioned with Obama, for which I really can't blame them. This might convince some of them that they ought to take another chance.

---------- Post added 15th May 2012 at 08:34 PM ----------

It mean, it's not like he had a bunch of fundies lined up to support him or anything, so he doesn't have much to lose in this.

 

Sigh here we go again...