OBama Flops on gay rights
Obama flops on gay marriage
Written by Ben Fisher
Thursday, 23 July 2009
In an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow during the 2008 presidential campaign, President Barack Obama declared himself a “fierce advocate” for the rights of the lesbian, gay, and transgender community. But in light of recent events at the national level, the LGBT community would certainly disagree with this characterization.
The Obama administration again infuriated gay rights organizations on Thursday, June 11 when the Justice Department filed a court motion to uphold the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. The legislation declares that same-sex marriages should not be recognized in states where gay marriage is prohibited and explicitly defines legal marriage as between “one man and one woman.”
The Obama administration has proven slow to keep the president’s campaign promise to reverse the United States Military’s much-maligned “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which prohibits openly gay and lesbian Americans from serving in the armed forces. According to Huffington Post, the president began consulting members of the Department of Defense in March on how to lift the policy; yet, the administration has taken no further action since these sessions.
The president quickly tried to atone for his lack of support for gay marriage. On Wednesday, June 17, the president signed a memorandum that, according to CNN, will award “health care and other benefits” to the “same-sex partners of federal employees.” But an overview of his political career will reveal that President Obama flip-flopped in his support of marriage equality. In a 1996 article in Chicago’s Outlines (which merged with Windy City Times in 2000), Illinois state Senate candidate Obama stated that he favored “legalizing same-sex marriages” and declared that he would “fight efforts to prohibit same-sex marriages.” But 2008 presidential candidate Obama reversed his opinion on gay marriage – in a 2008 interview on Hardball with Chris Matthews, he opposed gay marriage but supported “strong civil unions” that would provide the “same legal rights” as legal marriage.
The ugly truth is that President Obama is not the only high-profile Democrat to revoke support for gay marriage. According to the Huffington Post, former presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, John Edwards, and Christopher Dodd all rescinded their support of gay marriage during their respective bids for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination – Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel were the only candidates who supported its legalization.
But President Obama’s impassioned speech to the NAACP on Thursday, July 16 renewed hope that LGBT rights remain a priority for this administration. Obama highlighted the discrimination still felt by “our gay brothers and sisters” who are “still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights.”
These setbacks at the federal level have added insult to injury among the LGBT community in South Carolina. Gay rights activists are still reeling from the passage of the 2009 Dating Violence Bill in the South Carolina House of Representatives.
The bill originated as a legitimate attempt to protect teenagers in the event of “physical, sexual, verbal, or emotional abuse” from “his or her dating partner.”
The legislation never mentioned gays or lesbians until Republican Greg Delleney called for an amendment to the bill, saying that he did not want the “Department of Education or the school districts to teach children in grades six through 12 about [same-sex] relationships.”
Per Delleney’s suggestion, the May 2009 version of the bill explicitly defines “dating partner” as “a person involved in a heterosexual dating relationship with another” and systematically eliminates LGBT teenagers from protection from domestic violence. The South Carolina legislature officially banned gay marriage back in 2007.
Written by Ben Fisher
Thursday, 23 July 2009
In an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow during the 2008 presidential campaign, President Barack Obama declared himself a “fierce advocate” for the rights of the lesbian, gay, and transgender community. But in light of recent events at the national level, the LGBT community would certainly disagree with this characterization.
The Obama administration again infuriated gay rights organizations on Thursday, June 11 when the Justice Department filed a court motion to uphold the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. The legislation declares that same-sex marriages should not be recognized in states where gay marriage is prohibited and explicitly defines legal marriage as between “one man and one woman.”
The Obama administration has proven slow to keep the president’s campaign promise to reverse the United States Military’s much-maligned “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which prohibits openly gay and lesbian Americans from serving in the armed forces. According to Huffington Post, the president began consulting members of the Department of Defense in March on how to lift the policy; yet, the administration has taken no further action since these sessions.
The president quickly tried to atone for his lack of support for gay marriage. On Wednesday, June 17, the president signed a memorandum that, according to CNN, will award “health care and other benefits” to the “same-sex partners of federal employees.” But an overview of his political career will reveal that President Obama flip-flopped in his support of marriage equality. In a 1996 article in Chicago’s Outlines (which merged with Windy City Times in 2000), Illinois state Senate candidate Obama stated that he favored “legalizing same-sex marriages” and declared that he would “fight efforts to prohibit same-sex marriages.” But 2008 presidential candidate Obama reversed his opinion on gay marriage – in a 2008 interview on Hardball with Chris Matthews, he opposed gay marriage but supported “strong civil unions” that would provide the “same legal rights” as legal marriage.
The ugly truth is that President Obama is not the only high-profile Democrat to revoke support for gay marriage. According to the Huffington Post, former presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, John Edwards, and Christopher Dodd all rescinded their support of gay marriage during their respective bids for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination – Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel were the only candidates who supported its legalization.
But President Obama’s impassioned speech to the NAACP on Thursday, July 16 renewed hope that LGBT rights remain a priority for this administration. Obama highlighted the discrimination still felt by “our gay brothers and sisters” who are “still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights.”
These setbacks at the federal level have added insult to injury among the LGBT community in South Carolina. Gay rights activists are still reeling from the passage of the 2009 Dating Violence Bill in the South Carolina House of Representatives.
The bill originated as a legitimate attempt to protect teenagers in the event of “physical, sexual, verbal, or emotional abuse” from “his or her dating partner.”
The legislation never mentioned gays or lesbians until Republican Greg Delleney called for an amendment to the bill, saying that he did not want the “Department of Education or the school districts to teach children in grades six through 12 about [same-sex] relationships.”
Per Delleney’s suggestion, the May 2009 version of the bill explicitly defines “dating partner” as “a person involved in a heterosexual dating relationship with another” and systematically eliminates LGBT teenagers from protection from domestic violence. The South Carolina legislature officially banned gay marriage back in 2007.
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