I've got to hand it to my man Vice
President Joe Biden, the guy really knows how to create a headline.
Appearing on NBC's Meet the Press last
Sunday Biden caused a stir with his comments on same-sex marriage by
saying. “I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men
marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men and women
marrying another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil
rights, all of the civil liberties. And quite frankly I don't see
much of a distinction—beyond that”
Listening to MTP's host David Gregory
and a lot of the other pundit genuises out there you would think that
the Vice President's comments fly directly in the face of his bosses
feelings on the matter, fact is they don't. Biden like the President
didn't flat out say he supports gay marriage, in fact when he asked
that direct question by Gregory he stopped just short. Biden in
effect was towing the party line laid down by President Obama who
says he is still evolving on the issue.
The White House and The President in
particular are doing a very delicate dance, Support a key voting
block that supports you overwhemingly and let the political chips
fall where they may or hope that same voting block stays with you
while you pander to a core group of bigots who are stuck in a time
warp in crucial battleground states. The President not only wants to
punt on this issue he wants to place the ball inside the other teams
5 yard line.
As a straight guy I feel that it is
completely inappropriate for someone like me to tell the LGBT
community to practice patience on this issue. In the early 1960's
African-Americans were fed up with the patience lecture they were
getting from both the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, especially
when civil rights luminaries like Medgar Evers and Chaney, Goodman,
and Schwerner were being murdered in Mississippi. Gays and Lesbians
have every right to be frustrated with The President's unwillingness
at this point to take a stand.
At what point however do we begin to
look at not only the President's track record with the gay community,
but also Mitt Romney's deplorable views on the same subject. There
are no two ways about it Barack Obama has been the most pro-active
President on gay rights this country has ever seen.
When compared to the last Democrat to
occupy the Oval Office Bill Clinton, Obama should be elected
president of GLAAD when he's no longer in the White House. It was
Clinton who gave us “Don't Ask Don't Tell” and “DOMA” and it
was Obama who repealed one and told his Justice Department to stop
defending the other.
With the Republicans and Mitt Romney in
particular it might as well be 2004 all over. You remember 2004 when
George W. Bush, and Karl Rove were crisscrossing the country
expounding the virtues of marriage between a man and a woman, even
going so far as to call for a constitutional amendment against gay
marriage, The possibility of Amendment 1 passing in North Carolina
brings all of this back into the public consciousness. Not only does
Romney not have a leg to stand on on this issue he doesn't want one.
As Governor of the state of Massachusettes Romney vowed to block a
court ruling that said same-sex couples had the legal right to
marry. If you want recent history however, all you have to do is go
back to the Richard Grennell incident last week.
I don't think there is any doubt that
Barack Obama is in favor of same-sex marriage, the question is will
the LGBT community forgive him the grievance of treating them like a
political football, and more importantly will it even matter if Mitt
Romney is taking The Oath of Office in January.
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