At a California Democratic fundraiser, Wednesday, May 27th, with hundreds of Prop 8 protesters outside, President Obama openly dismissed them by making a joke about not knowing "what promise" they were talking about. See the video here. He later backpedaled a little bit and spun out some generic rhetoric about "standing with him." How about you stand with me, Mr. President?
Someone pointed out to me the other day that Obama's tepid stance on GLBT issues may in fact be supported by the idea: What are you going to do, vote for Palin in 2012? Tell you what, I just might. I came within a moment's hesitation of voting for John McCain this time. And if I have another president who doesn't care about my civil right, why should it matter if I vote for a different one who doesn't care? In fact, having a president who openly despises me just might inflame the community enough to get a unified movement going, instead of this half-baked "wait and see" and "stand with me" crap that just keeps people hanging on a thread.
I just can't get over the hypocrisy of it. The first black man to be President of the United States won't come within striking distance of the last legally sanctioned discrimination in America. And, while he was in California-- California for God sake -- with Prop 8 protesters outside, he has the chops to make a dismissive comment like that. As I've said before, and likely will say again, one of the reasons people hate Conservatives is because they're not ashamed of what they believe. So called "liberals" need to dodge and spew out empty crowd-pleaser rhetoric and make off the cuff offensive jokes that they can later deny. So, come 2012, unless there has been substantive progress on guaranteeing full civil rights for gay Americans from the White House.... You betcha! I just might vote for someone else.
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Obama has never wavered in support of civil rights for gays. But gay "marriage" is still an idea that is offensive to a lot of people. And if Obama stands for anything, it is for trying to make change without unnecessarily causing offense. That is why he reaches out to right-to-lifers; that is why he invites fundamentalist preachers to the White House; that is why he does not support gay marriage.
Why not look at the issue of gay civil rights as practically won? That is how the California Supreme Court portrayed it. Their decision said that it would be unconstitutional to deny gays any of the rights of heterosexual couples. They only thing gay couples are denied in California is the right to call their unions "marriage." I understand that is still significant, but is it worth threatening to vote for Sarah Palin for?
YEs, it is. The time for compromises is over.
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