Edited by Katie Marinello
Gay Marriage, Obama’s Revolution: “Same-sex Couples Should Be Able to Get Married”
Published in La Repubblica
(Italy) on 09 May 2012
by Angelo Aquaro (link to original)
(Italy) on 09 May 2012
by Angelo Aquaro (link to original)
Translated from
by Francesca Baldanzi.
Edited by .
"Same-sex couples should be able to get married."
The president laid out his position in an interview with “ABC News.” He had been under pressure for a long time, especially since Vice President Biden said recently he endorses gay marriage and the Republican candidate Romney attacks that issue.
NEW YORK - The first black president is now also the first president who says yes to gay marriage. "Same-sex couples should be able to get married," he said recently in an interview.
.
The “evolution,” as he calls his long conversion process on his views of gay marriage, is completed. This “evolution” represents a real revolution for America and the whole world. Barack Obama embraces the gays’ cause and expresses a left-wing concept while trying to relaunch his difficult race for the reelection. All this as the Republican Mitt Romney fires his spokesman Richard Grenell only because he is gay.
Yes, the president who had already certified end of the shameful antigay policy in the military popularly known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t tell” has now taken it a step further. He discloses what people think he has always believed in private for a while, to tell the truth.
"Over the course of several years” he said in a long-awaited interview with “ABC News,” “I could meet and talk to members of my own staff who are incredibly committed, in 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're 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.”.
It 'a revolution, a turning point, a historic day, as already reflected in the first surveys here in the U.S. But it is also more than a delicate issue. Just Wednesday, North Carolina voted overwhelmingly for a state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex unions. But North Carolina is not just any state. It was the state that four years ago Obama snatched away from Republicans and that now it is critical to his reelection. And it is the state where the Democratic convention will nominate Barack Obama in September.
And against this issue, the Republicans go blatantly on attack.
"When the issue was raised in my home state of Massachusetts," the challenger Mitt Romney specified in the same hours as Mr. Obama’s announcement “My view is the same as it’s been from the beginning. I don’t favor marriage between people of the same gender. If a civil union is identical to marriage other than with the name, I don’t support that.” This is a step back even from the most right-wing gentleman ever seen recently in the White House: Vice President Dick Cheney. In that case, heart reasons had softened the hawk: his daughter Mary is a lesbian.
But politics is a different thing from heart's affairs. Since 1998, the American people have voted on gay marriage 32 times, and homosexuals have lost 32 times, even in such states considered more progressive, such as California, Oregon, and Delaware. This despite the majority of Americans reportedly favoring same-sex marriage: 47 percent, while 43 percent oppose. That is the reason why, according to the president, such a sensitive matter can only be handled by the states. So far, only six, plus the District of Columbia, the nation’s capital, have voted for it.
Obama does not consider it only as an ethical issue. It is not just a logical question: can a president who nominated Jeremy Bernard as the first man and openly gay person to be the White House social secretary, be against same-sex marriage? No, behind this there must also be a financial issue. Gay, lesbian and transgender people are among the wealthiest donors of the president's campaign, and recently their billionaire hands were hanging back. Many young homosexual activists were tired of broken promises. This the same group of volunteers, who in 2008 dragged the black senator to the throne of George Washington. Black and Latinos gays, women, and youth, once considered as "minorities,” now set out to become a majority together. Obama needs to count on these votes for reelection, especially now that a “USA Today” poll show a dangerous four point lead on Romney.
The issue had become unbearable after the statement of Vice President Joe Biden a few days ago. "I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women," the number two in the White House, also known for his gaffes, candidly said.
It is clear that it was not a blunder at all. On some issues, Biden has always been more left-wing than Obama. After that, imagine the uproar in the administration added to it, when even the minister for education, Arne Duncan, is in favor of gay marriage. Just a coincidence? It's certain that Obama has had to hastily arrange an interview with the ABC in order to "clarify" his position.
As a result, we have arrived at the sensational turning point: the president of the United States endorses same-sex marriage.
The president laid out his position in an interview with “ABC News.” He had been under pressure for a long time, especially since Vice President Biden said recently he endorses gay marriage and the Republican candidate Romney attacks that issue.
NEW YORK - The first black president is now also the first president who says yes to gay marriage. "Same-sex couples should be able to get married," he said recently in an interview.
.
The “evolution,” as he calls his long conversion process on his views of gay marriage, is completed. This “evolution” represents a real revolution for America and the whole world. Barack Obama embraces the gays’ cause and expresses a left-wing concept while trying to relaunch his difficult race for the reelection. All this as the Republican Mitt Romney fires his spokesman Richard Grenell only because he is gay.
Yes, the president who had already certified end of the shameful antigay policy in the military popularly known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t tell” has now taken it a step further. He discloses what people think he has always believed in private for a while, to tell the truth.
"Over the course of several years” he said in a long-awaited interview with “ABC News,” “I could meet and talk to members of my own staff who are incredibly committed, in 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're 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.”.
It 'a revolution, a turning point, a historic day, as already reflected in the first surveys here in the U.S. But it is also more than a delicate issue. Just Wednesday, North Carolina voted overwhelmingly for a state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex unions. But North Carolina is not just any state. It was the state that four years ago Obama snatched away from Republicans and that now it is critical to his reelection. And it is the state where the Democratic convention will nominate Barack Obama in September.
And against this issue, the Republicans go blatantly on attack.
"When the issue was raised in my home state of Massachusetts," the challenger Mitt Romney specified in the same hours as Mr. Obama’s announcement “My view is the same as it’s been from the beginning. I don’t favor marriage between people of the same gender. If a civil union is identical to marriage other than with the name, I don’t support that.” This is a step back even from the most right-wing gentleman ever seen recently in the White House: Vice President Dick Cheney. In that case, heart reasons had softened the hawk: his daughter Mary is a lesbian.
But politics is a different thing from heart's affairs. Since 1998, the American people have voted on gay marriage 32 times, and homosexuals have lost 32 times, even in such states considered more progressive, such as California, Oregon, and Delaware. This despite the majority of Americans reportedly favoring same-sex marriage: 47 percent, while 43 percent oppose. That is the reason why, according to the president, such a sensitive matter can only be handled by the states. So far, only six, plus the District of Columbia, the nation’s capital, have voted for it.
Obama does not consider it only as an ethical issue. It is not just a logical question: can a president who nominated Jeremy Bernard as the first man and openly gay person to be the White House social secretary, be against same-sex marriage? No, behind this there must also be a financial issue. Gay, lesbian and transgender people are among the wealthiest donors of the president's campaign, and recently their billionaire hands were hanging back. Many young homosexual activists were tired of broken promises. This the same group of volunteers, who in 2008 dragged the black senator to the throne of George Washington. Black and Latinos gays, women, and youth, once considered as "minorities,” now set out to become a majority together. Obama needs to count on these votes for reelection, especially now that a “USA Today” poll show a dangerous four point lead on Romney.
The issue had become unbearable after the statement of Vice President Joe Biden a few days ago. "I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women," the number two in the White House, also known for his gaffes, candidly said.
It is clear that it was not a blunder at all. On some issues, Biden has always been more left-wing than Obama. After that, imagine the uproar in the administration added to it, when even the minister for education, Arne Duncan, is in favor of gay marriage. Just a coincidence? It's certain that Obama has had to hastily arrange an interview with the ABC in order to "clarify" his position.
As a result, we have arrived at the sensational turning point: the president of the United States endorses same-sex marriage.