Obama ‘Evolving’ Stance on Gay Marriage-Evolve Already Please!

  by Matt Kennard

A calculating Washington operative might construe Barack Obama’s continued reluctance to support same-sex marriage as a clever strategic ploy to maximise votes as the 2012 presidential election race gets under way.

Do just enough on gay rights to keep the liberal base onside, if not exactly overjoyed. But stop short of backing same-sex marriage to avoid alienating socially conservative voters in battleground states such as Ohio and Virginia.

This might seem like a typically calibrated stance for a president who is noted for trying to have it both ways on issues such as troop withdrawal in Afghanistan.

But, analysts say, Mr Obama’s comments about gay marriage last week could reflect a rare event in Washington: a politician saying something because he genuinely believes it. “I don’t think this is a case of sitting down and trying to map out the politics of it,” says Norman Ornstein, a seasoned political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute think-tank. “I think this is his genuine feeling. For whatever reason, he has not yet come to the conclusion that this is something he can support.”

At a Gay Pride reception at the White House on Wednesday, just five days after New York became the seventh jurisdiction in the US to allow same-sex weddings, Mr Obama trumpeted his achievements: winning the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy that bans gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military, and ordering the justice department to stop defending the law that bans federal recognition of same-sex marriages.

Gays and lesbians deserve to be “treated like every other American”, Mr Obama said. But the president, who backs civil unions for same-sex couples and last December said his views on gay marriage were “evolving”, still declined to back gay marriage. This dichotomy – being the most progressive president to date on gay issues, but not progressive enough for marriage equality – has disappointed many liberal voters.

“It continues to be extremely disheartening to people who want to support him because this is one of the most important things for us,” says Richard Socarides, who advised president Bill Clinton on gay and lesbian policy.

Where Mr Obama once looked like he was at least trying, he is being compared – in unflattering terms – with Andrew Cuomo, the New York governor who championed the same-sex marriage bill.

Certainly, Mr Obama is moving too slowly for some. “I’m still not an equal,” says Dan Choi, a former Arabic linguist who was discharged from the army in 2010 after coming out as gay. “He hasn’t shown that he possesses the political courage for gays to support him for a second term.”

But there are few other options. All the candidates for the Republican presidential nomination except Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor who is more or less in favour of civil unions, have taken a strong stance against same-sex marriage. Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota lawmaker, has espoused blatantly homophobic positions, activists say.

Given the lack of options, many are willing to give the president more time. “The president says his views are evolving and I believe him,” says Fred Sainz of the Human Rights Campaign, a powerful gay advocacy group. “I think many Americans are also on the same journey, including many parents of gay Americans.”

Showing the potential for conversions on the issue, David Frum, a former speech writer for George W. Bush and a commentator who had long been opposed to same-sex marriage, this week said he was wrong. “If people like me had been right, we should have seen the American family become radically more unstable over the subsequent decade and a half” since same-sex marriage was allowed in some states, he wrote on his blog.

Mr Ornstein says he would be surprised if Mr Obama does not support same-sex marriage by the time the presidential election rolls around next year.

Or, in the words of a badge that Dan Savage, an author and gay activist, wore to Wednesday night’s party: “Evolve already.”

Additional reporting by Matt Kennard

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