In its Jan. 14 issue, the Chicago LGBT newspaper Windy City Times will publish a report saying that President-elect Obama, who said throughout his presidential campaign that he did not support same-sex marriage but was for full federal recognition of civil unions, did at one time support full marriage equality.
According to the newspaper, during his 1996 run for the Illinois Senate, Obama had this to say in answering a questionnaire for Outlines (the other Chicago LGBT newspaper that purchased Windy City Times and merged the two papers in 2000):Â “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.”
There was, WCT points out, no use of the phrase “civil unions.”
Funny how things change when one wants to be president. Just goes to show once again that it doesn’t matter if a politician personally feels that the only valid marriage is between a man and a Martian. It’s what this politician represents in her/his societal role.
Obama is against marriage equality now (in his societal role). Making some noise, raising some eyebrows and some hell about this will put pressure on Obama so that it would be politically advantageous for him to stand with us once more on the marriage equality issue.
I remember the last Democratic president. The one who signed DOMA into law. We have come along way. It is troubling to see today’s misguided youths who do not understand the realities of how ideas get turned into laws.
President Obama will do more for gay rights than all 43 presidents before him combined. The sad part is, most LGBT people will not have the context to realize all these gains. And will instead spend the next 4 years being unappreciative for all his has done for gay rights, while holding him to unrealistic expectations.