Obama and Gays

President Barack Obama has unleashed a series of controversies by having recently declared his support for same-sex marriage. This can be considered polemical and unexpected, since it will play a relevant role in the upcoming U.S. presidential elections to such effect that the Republican hopeful for the nomination, Mitt Romney, has displayed his total disagreement with this issue. This is polarizing the opinion of those that are against and those that are in favor of that institutional reform.

In effect, there are 31 American states, with the recent addition of North Carolina, that have approved amendments to their constitutions prohibiting homosexual marriages. They assert that a union between a man and a woman is the only definition of matrimony based on procreation, family, public order and moral principles.

On the other hand, those who defend same-sex marriage maintain that sufficient reasons do not exist to justify depriving them of legal protection without committing discrimination. This rejects the aforementioned traditionalist criteria with their disconnection with the social and ethical principles of the times. They add that legal reform to judicial systems to include the rights of homosexuals is a matter of equality before the law in benefit of individual liberties.

There are already 10 countries in the world that have reformed their internal legislation to authorize weddings between persons of the same sex, whether between men or women. In what may be the beginning of a similar law in Honduras, legal recognition of gay communities was authorized during the administration of President Maduro. It obtained its legal status from the state, which based itself at that time on [the fact] that the Honduran Constitution guarantees the freedom of association, [which is] a half-truth.

In any event, Obama’s declaration could become a political boomerang in the November elections, above all from the most religious voters. The Cardinal of New York has criticized this declaration straight away with the belief that they undermine the American institution of marriage, which is the keystone of North American society, according to the judgment of the New York prelate. This, of course, is not accepted by the bisexual community.

The law, like science, is evolving. Thus, we will see which presidential candidate wins the United States electoral contest in order to imagine how this entanglement will play out.