Yesterday, President Obama shocked the world by doing what most politicians would never do in an election year: he told the truth!
In a “not-so-shocking” admission on ABC News, the president finally ended all speculation and acknowledged that he supports same-sex marriage. Are you surprised?
Unless you’ve been living on the dark side of the moon or in just plain old denial, this should not have hijacked the evening news and pulled out political pundits to argue the point like they did. But come on… had Mr. Obama not admitted his support of marriage equality, is there anyone alive who seriously wasn’t sure where he stood on the idea?
As the nation’s first black president, Mr. Obama has had to walk an incredible tight rope since his historic inauguration. He’s had to support his fellow African-Americans while not appearing to be giving in to favoritism. He’s had to support the liberal wing of his party while being careful not to alienate Independent voters. He’s even had to talk in circles about “evolving” on the issue of same-sex marriage, while trying not to offend the LGBT community or his fellow Christians. But yesterday, the president threw caution to the wind, stood firm in his convictions and courageously announced what he believes.
“I’ve been going through an evolution on this issue. I’ve always been adamant that gay and lesbian Americans should be treated fairly and equally,” the president said in the television interview with Robin Roberts of ABC. “At a certain point I’ve just concluded that, for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.”
Mr. Obama’s words were unprecedented, as he is the first sitting U.S. president to publicly support gay marriage. Although his endorsement was largely a symbolic gesture, it sent a powerful message to the gay and lesbian community, as well as younger voters, who collectively donated $1 million dollars to the Obama-Biden campaign within the first 30 minutes of the interview. Wow!
Still, the million dollar question is if the president will pay a political price for his honesty during an election year? Possibly, but not very likely.
Opponents of same-sex marriage, including Christian conservatives, were already opponents of Obama for president. They weren’t going to vote for him anyway, so there is no expected loss from this group. Independents could possibly be affected by his admission, but for all those Independents he turned off yesterday, he likely picked up an equal amount who are in support of marriage equality. The biggest group affected by the news of the day is almost certainly the LBGT community and younger voters, who turned out in record numbers to vote for Mr. Obama in 2008, but have since been lackluster toward his reelection campaign. Knowing they have a friend in the White House who was willing to risk it all for the sake of equality, could be just what the Obama campaign needs to pull gay, lesbian and young adult voters back into the fold.
In an interesting side note, voters in North Carolina approved a constitutional amendment this past Tuesday to disavow same-sex marriages, civil unions and domestic partnerships, affecting both homosexual and heterosexual couples. The Democratic National Convention is scheduled to be held in North Carolina this summer, which should make for an interesting backstory between the same-sex marriage supporting president and the opposing residents of this split southern state.
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I think, for the President, the tipping point was that reprehensible ANTI-Marriage Equality bill that just passed in North Carolina.It certainly was the tipping point for me. Prior to that, I had not been a supporter of "gay" marriage. However, at NO time did I believe that gay couples should be DENIED their EQUAL Rights. Who anyone loves OR wants to marry is NONE of my business. It's THEIR life. THEIR decision. As long as it's between 2 consenting adults, gay couples should be granted ALL of the same *Rights* granted to EVERY other American citizen. More importantly for me, as a Black-American, knowing AMERICAN history, I could NEVER support ANY initiative that seeks to DENY anyone, or ANY group, their EQUAL Rights. With 32 states seeming H*ll-bent on denying gay couples their EQUAL Rights, I think the President finally decided, Enough Is Enough. He took a bold step, IMO. And I, for one, am very glad that he did.