Obama’s New Values Argument

For the first time, a U.S. president has spoken out in favor of same-sex marriage. That’s a sensation as well as a sign of courage. Barack Obama is taking the risk of igniting a dangerous cultural controversy that won’t smolder for very long before erupting into flames. Yesterday, Fox News accused him of waging a war on marriage. Is marriage between a man and a woman no longer sacred to Americans? No, it’s not that simple any longer. Where over 60 percent of Americans rejected same-sex marriage a decade ago, that has since changed to a slim majority in favor of it. Society is changing slowly but inexorably: gays and lesbians are increasingly becoming more numerous in important positions and agencies. Even the Republican Party now has openly homosexual members.

But that’s not intended to diminish Obama’s declaration. It’s a further advancement of legal equality for homosexuals. Obama had already abolished sexual discrimination in the U.S. military and overturned Bill Clinton’s “Defense of Marriage Act” that restricted the definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman.*

His defense of same-sex marriage is risky but, at the same time, clever. It forces Republican candidate Mitt Romney into a debate about values at a time when Romney would rather debate economic problems. Plus, it mobilizes the liberal base, a group that has long been dissatisfied with Obama’s leadership.

*Editor’s Note: the Obama administration announced in 2011 that it had determined that Section 3 — which codifies the non-recognition of same-sex marriage for all federal purposes, including insurance benefits for government employees, Social Security survivors’ benefits, and the filing of joint tax returns — unconstitutional. Though it would continue to enforce the law, it would no longer defend it in court. In response, the House of Representatives undertook the defense of the law on behalf of the federal government in place of the Department of Justice.