YES, HE DID… with Hillary’s influence I bet 😉
Barack Obama becomes the first SITTING President of The United States to utter these words:
I think same sex couples should be able to get married.
Full context:
“I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, 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,” Obama told Roberts, in an interview to appear on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Thursday.
Excerpts of the interview will air tonight on ABC’s “World News with Diane Sawyer.”
Earlier Sky Dancing Post… Via Think Progress:
REPORT: Obama Expected To Endorse Marriage Equality In ABC News Interview
By Igor Volsky on May 9, 2012 at 1:35 pm
As President Obama prepares to sit down with ABC’s Robin Roberts this afternoon just hours after voters in North Carolina passed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions, political reporters are predicting that he may finally complete his evolution and endorse the freedom to marry for gay and lesbian people.
“Every expectation that we will, within the next hour, be in a different world, where we will have a President of the United States who supports the legalization of gay marriage,” Mark Halperin said this afternoon during an appearance on MSNBC. “The Vice President, I think, forced his hand. But even before the Vice President spoke on Meet The Press in favor of gay marriage, the President was headed in this direction,” he added. Watch it:
As the 2012 general election officially draws closer–The Fierce Urgency of NOW is finally upon us! Heh…
Still, IF this pans out–and I stress IF, because if there are more “evolving” caveats… then that’s a dealbreaker.
But, IF Obama actually endorses marriage equality and actually *stands up* for LGBT rights for a change, I just may finally have somebody/something to finally vote FOR (as opposed to against) in this godforsaken election.
Comments
81 responses to “UPDATED: Obama Endorses Marriage Equality. (Will Obama Endorse Marriage Equality this afternoon? All eyes on the ABC interview…)”
I decided to put up a separate thread because this is somewhat ridiculously exciting!
A POTUS who supports marriage equality?!?!? Is it time to break out the Prosecco?
It is exciting, Wonk. I find myself tearing up. As Biden would say, this is a big fucking deal!
Touche! Yes, it is a BFD 🙂
It is a BFD. I’m excited too, Janicen.
Reblogged this on Let Them Listen.
About time everyone EVOLVES and sees that this is indeed a Civil Rights issue:
Civil Rights Leader Dolores Huerta on Equality in Marriage, Gay Rights and Human Rights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmTnC7W39w8
I hope the momentum grows as LGBT people are the children of all people, be they Republicans, Democrats or Independents. Many of their children have suffered a long time and it is time that Mitt Romney evolves too…lest he forget VIP Cheney’s daughter is Gay, has a partner, and a child. To continue to deny the LGBT community their Civil Rights and Human Rights is simple wrong and within the Americans ideals of Justice for All.
Hiya Woman Voter… good to hear from you! It’s a celebration 😉
ooop ” and NOT within the Americans ideals of Justice for All.”
correction. :blush:
OK, after the jumping more work ahead as some still have their heads in the sand.
This is something, shall we place our bets?
Romney isn’t talking : Asked About Gay Marriage, Romney Doesn’t Answer – NYTimes.com
Lol, Mitt needs a new/better poker face…
Wonk the Vote,
ObamaBot RT’d the tweet for your post. Good going!
Oh…is that so? today is just full of surprises… 😉
I think Obama has to do this. If he doesn’t the press will just keep on asking him and Carney about it. In the long run, it wll help him to actually take a stand on something. Maybe it will feel good to him and he’ll do it more often in the future.
I agree.
According to MSNBC, the NEWS will break at 2PM Central 3PM Eastern. I’m going to bet
YES, for no other reason than I need to
🙂
HE DID IT!
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/obama-comes-out-i-think-same-sex-couples-should-be-able-to-get-married/
Now we wait to see him put this into legislation and give it the full backing and support of the White House….
Hillary 2012
The states are in charge of marriage laws. I don’t think federal legislation will happen.
@BB agreed!
Yea, like how about a “President Obama Gay Rights/ Marriage Equality Executive Order”! 😉
Chris Matthews on MSNBC. Looks like he’s getting ready to faint
I mean Matthews is visibly shaken. Pale, well more pale than usual
Matthews supports marriage rights. He must be thrilled.
I know, I think he was just stunned and he expressed his view that the wolves will soon be out against Obama on this issue. They’re already out!!! They’ve been out!!! They’re going to stay out!!! Now we get to have the real conversation and that conversation is WHAT is the GOP/TP/RIght trying to protect marriage from? This will become a campaign issue and folks will have to ask themselves questions they may not have asked themselves before. Questions like “WHY do I oppose civil marriage for L&G’s?” Civil marriage has nothing to do with religion, it has to do with a contract between two people and all the privileges that contract infers and bestows. There is NO reason why L&G’s should be denied a civil contract except personal bigotry (homophobia).
I have to say, even if this was a poltical move, it was a truly gutsy one.
I think it will help him with the Democratic base.
“I think it will help him with the Democratic base.”
I agree!! 🙂 I also think this might give him a boost with independents. He needed to step out onto the plank and take a tough stand. As the asshat, Mitt Romney, has vowed repeatedly and in a pledge to support a Constitutional Amendment banning Gay Marriage, Obama has now taken a stand supporting gay marriage. Tha,t along with his refusal to defend DOMA, seals the deal for me. No doubt, he needs to evolve to a position that says “BANNING GAY MARRIAGE IN THE STATES IS WRONG TOO”. Still, I’m not complaining. I just watched one of those “it won’t happen in my lifetime” things die before I do. It was a superior moment and a very fine memory.
Mouse, you’ve brought tears to my eyes…
Mouse, there could be an amendment to the constitution to say that all rights must be extended to everyone; but if they do that it better damn well include and ERA for women too!
The administration has already criticized the vote in NC, by the way.
BB. The ERA is another one of those things I don’t expect to see in my lifetime, in part because so many people are in denial that it even is an issue, including a lot of women, and in part because the Constitutional Amendment process itself is so tedious. I think I remember you writing that you were a part of the ERA movement. so you know of what I speak. Gender discrimination is still alive and well, but it’s often so well disguised it’s hard to prove. Lawsuits challenging employers who discriminate in hiring/promotion or pay help to discourage discrimination, but I don’t expect gender discrimination or discrimination against L/G’s to end anytime soon. As long as people use tired old religious doctrine and dogma to legitimize looking down on others or marginalizing others as inferior or outcast, discrimination has a ticket to ride.
As for the gay marriage issue, because there are specific laws on the books banning gay marriage, gay civil unions and allowing blatant. lawful discrimination against L/G’s, I’m hoping in time that we’ll get rulings out of the Federal Courts that nullify these state laws and amendments in the same way Jim Crow and segregation were dissembled bit, by bit through the courts. The sad truth is that even though Jim Crow laws are gone and it’s been 48 years since the passage of the Civil Rights Act, racial discrimination is still alive and well.
…and slavery is far from abolished.
“Mouse, you’ve brought tears to my eyes”
My partner and I both had a really good cry. Reflecting back on our life in it’s entirety, what we’ve seen, what we’ve experienced, what we’ve seen happen to good, decent L/G’s whose only crime was loving another person, this day couldn’t be anything but bittersweet for us, no wonder the tears.
What BB said at 3:38!
Romney stated flatly today in an interview that he opposes marriages between people of the same sex and he even opposes civil unions if they allow rights that only married people get.
That’s the evilness of the GOP/TP position. The benefits associated with Civil Unions are domestic partner benefits such as Health Insurance coverage and inheritance of Company paid Retirement Benefits. Romney needs to swallow his 250 million cheese sandwiches and take a freestyle swim on over to the Caymans.
He’s an asshole. He supposedly supported gay rights when he ran for governor. Now suddenly he doesn’t. But this will hurt him with independents and young people.
it will hurt him bigtime… couldn’t happen to a more deserving hollow reed.
Mayor Bloomberg:
“This is a major turning point in the history of American civil rights. No American president has ever supported a major expansion of civil rights that has not ultimately been adopted by the American people – and I have no doubt that this will be no exception. The march of freedom that has sustained our country since the Revolution of 1776 continues, and no matter what setbacks may occur in a given state, freedom will triumph over fear and equality will prevail over exclusion. Today’s announcement is a testament to the President’s convictions, and it builds on the courageous stands that so many Americans have taken over the years on behalf of equal rights for gay and lesbian Americans, stretching back to the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village.”
Excellent Quote! Thank you, Mouse.
you’re welcome.
At long last President Indifferent has taken a stand. And in the right direction I might add!
So refreshing to hear someone stand up to the bigots and assert a position that holds merit.
And where is Mitens on this ? Silent as usual. What an ass!
Hopefully this assertion by Obama, a black man, will resonant within the black community itself since their preachers have been instrumental in “praying the gay away”.
For a community who suffered for decades from discrimination you would think they would be behind the effort for civil rights of all.
Good for Obama! Good for us as a nation! And good for the gay community who should never have to demand their equality as human beings.
Coretta Scott King, one of my personal sheroes, was a huge supporter of the LGBTQ community and spoke out often in support of Gay Marriage and Civil Rights for L&G. Now the NAACP is onboard with gay rights, and a large part of it’s officialdom are ministers and prominent people in the black church. The times they are a changin!
From Shep Smith: Shep Smith On President’s Gay Marriage Stance: Obama Is ‘Now In The 21st Century’ | Mediaite
Shep better watch his back. Comments like that on Faux News won’t be appreciated.
Not the party line. But wait, time for someone to drag out Quiterella for her response and enlightened take on the whole thing. This will “balance” it all out.
Now if only Bloomberg would stop his violations of people’s rights with stop and frisk and other law enforcement policies!
This is so frickin’ exciting!
Credit to the LGBT activist community most of all, for bringing us here.
Ditto that!
The President of the US acknowledged my son today.
For all of us parents, partners, brothers, sisters, friends, and loved ones, I offer a great big “thank you”.
Hooray!
For some reason, Wonk, I am a little teary eyed.
I guess it may be that it is so rare that someone stands up and does the right thing that it becomes an emotional response.
Either way, I am pleased that Obama finally declared something worthwhile for a change.
And I hope he sticks with it Pat…
Me too, Pat. Me, too. This is the first time since Hillary won the Texas/Ohio primary that I’ve felt genuinely heartened about anything on the domestic politics front… (at least to this extent!)
I think if he walks this back, he’s going to look like a gigantic wimp… haven’t we heard time and again, “Americans don’t vote for the wimp.”
That’s wonderful, Pat. This was the morally right thing to do, and I’m glad he did it.
Pat Johnson,
Very true, as I recall my favorite nephew tearing up at 22 saying he would never marry and people would accept him for who he was. It was hard, but I told him people would learn, even if we went one on one to do it, but that his life would include marriage to the person whom he loved.
It is difficult for me to understand how anyone who has held an infant in their arms, looked into that innocent and beautiful face, and could then dismiss that same child because of a biological and natural event.
What is unnatural is the ability to turn off and turn away from that same person because of it. For me it is senseless.
Thank you President Obama from the bottom of my heart. He endorsed my daughter and her partner today. I’ve got to go cry a little now.
You brought tears to my eyes, Ralph.
I wish my younger brother, Mark had lived to hear the President’s words. It would have made him so happy. I’m freaking ecstatic on his behalf!!!!!!
awwh… hugs to you Janice.
so many brothers… and sisters… who should have lived to hear those words… I like to think their energy is smiling down on us today!
Thanks, Wonk. We can’t forget to thank Joe Biden. He started the conversation.
Who (well, at least who here…) would have thought investing in Obama ’12 rainbow stickers would have been worth the gamble? 😉 Those things are gonna sell like hotcakes.
OK, here is the work if the momentum is going to grow. 🙂
Done.
She was also just on CNN, talking about her family and her young children.
It is interesting to see the opinions on Tweeter from around the world…countries that have Marriage Equality are rooting for the LGBT community in the US.
Just did it. Thank you for posting it.
🙂
This is wonderful news — and I am hoping that there will be more than words involved in 0bama’s endorsement. So I’ll wait until the full details of just how much he really stands behind his words.
Gay kids need all the support they can get — the suicide rate among gay and lesbian is distressingly high. We’ll never know the true numbers because too often parents cover up their the real reasons for the suicide. When the school allows bullies and the adults are bullies — of kids who are different — well we already know what happens.
Based on his record — I’ll just wait to see what 0bama does. Nice words — now for the action.
If the reason 0bama came out in support for Marriage equality is to show the clear distinction between himself and Romney — this is a good thing. Smart politically. Romney is a hard core Mormon — and his church has strict views on homosexuality and on the absolute subservience of women to men. To the Mormons women are merely reproductive tanks.
When I first drove through Utah on I-84 & I-80 — I was shocked at the number of bill boards showing a PG female surrounded by children & one adult male. The ads were for OB-GYN clinics. THAT is what women are good for to loyal Mormon males.
Maybe we get there from here
Obama says that Sasha and Malia influenced his decision on the gay marriage issue.
Wow, that is something…
Mr. Obama stated that he “personally” has come to think same-sex marriage is right.
It will be instructive to observe how, or if, he will push for constitutional recognition.
How would that work?
Ah the qualifier. “personal”
I was not married in a church — we were married by the justice of the peace. I could never understand why two people who love each other and just happen to be the same gender are banned from a civil union. Some of the strongest marriages I’ve seen are gays. While most hetro marriages are onto to partners 2, 3 or 4 — I’ve seen just as many gay unions still going strong far longer.
Marriage isn’t a church rite — that’s not why marriage was invented it was because of money and property. In Europe the churches took on the function of the state by registering births, marriages and deaths. It was simply easier to turn over state/national functions on the local level to the churches. Priests marry the church (so to speak) because of property ownership. Anyway that’s what I learned in my college European history class — The Professor really made a big deal of why there is the ban on married Catholic priests.
When the primitive mind takes over — humans can be convinced of anything. Thus North Carolina is full of stupid idiot jerks. Why the hell is the demo(nic) convention being held in NC?????
This one is for you Wonk the Vote:
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a historic speech at the United Nations in Geneva declaring that LGBT rights are human rights and human rights are LGBT rights
We’re used to speeches like that from Hillary. Civil rights for all. But I always love her speeches.
I think she is very solution oriented and speaks from the heart and believes in what she is saying. Sad she won’t run in 2016,
Just noticed: “fighting on my behalf” WTF?