While many are wondering whether Obama has given Romney a “gift” by alienating some of the Democratic base (namely, conservative religious people of color), this opinion article at the Huffington Post is pretty convincing to me that the whole thing was a grand chessmaster move by the Obama campaign. They’ve already done the math, figuring that supporting same-sex marriage is not only the right thing to do, but will help energize the base. It’s not the nail in the coffin the right makes it out to be, particularly among conservative religious people of color who will probably just agree to disagree on this one topic.
Senator Harry Reid has also come out in support of [civil] gay marriage. I wonder whether more and more Mormons will do the same.
Basically, this post is to open a thread for thoughts on recent events…
A lot of cali lgbt dems went where they were needed to help Obama win in 2008 and came home to Prop 8’s passage. You gotta save a few dances for the one who brung ya’
I wish he hadn’t waited until right after the awful amendment passed in my state to say it.
I’m glad that he stated his support so directly.
And yet, I feel like he didn’t go far enough. I’d like to hear him say that people shouldn’t have to fear that they’ll be captured and imprisoned indefinitely without trial.
It’s kinda weird how his support is like the closet. When he was in it, everyone already knew he supported gay marriage. And now that he’s “out,” nothing new is known. Yet the right is all the more galvanized by him being “out” — such that evangelicals might actually warm up to Romney. We’ll see how that Christian college reacts to Romney later today.
As much as anyone might want the happy sentiment of marriage: marriage between two of the same doesn’t make any sense. The whole point of a marriage is uniting complementary difference or opposites. Imagine a top chef saying “for my new recipe I will marry carrot to, guess what, carrot.”??!? Well, the fellow might get a job with the BBC or the Tory party, but the Labour party came to a much more reasonable accommodation: civil union. A truffle is a marriage between a soft ganache and hard shell with a sweet inner and bitter cocoa dusting.
Gay civil union, yes! Gay marriage: impossible.
Eleonore – I’m going to respond to your comment. I disagree that two humans are ever the same or completely different. My husband and I like sci-fi/fantasy series and cooking, does that make us the same?
What innate qualities are part of being female or male? What is innately female or male depends on social and cultural factors (meaning it’s not so innate after all).
I don’t see why two people who are devoted to one another shouldn’t be able to visit the other in the E.R. To obtain the tax advantages. Why should one group of people get those advantages and the other not?
@4 That’s true. But a presidential strategy can’t be based entirely on not making waves and hoping people will vote against what they see as the greater evil. You have to excite your own base as well, and make them want to get out and vote for you.
A lot of progressives are disappointed by Obama’s record (on human rights, for example). By coming out openly in favor of gay marriage, he’s winning back the trust and affection of a lot of people who were perhaps lukewarm about getting out there to vote on election day.
I’m happily married (in a straight marriage), and what makes my marriage work is not some sort of yin-yang essential difference between the sexes.
Also note: two people can absolutely have complementary personality traits despite being the same gender. Humans are complex! Having the same genitals doesn’t mean two people are both “carrots” — they can have matching genitals, and still have one be a “soft ganache” and the other a “hard shell” (and — attempting to follow your metaphor — I guess the other two(?) are the “sweet inner” and “bitter cocoa dusting” lol).
Additionally, on a meta-level, what ever happened to getting the government out of meddling in one’s life? Where does the government get off dictating to me what the “whole point” of my marriage is??!!
Here are my SiOB links on this subject:
The Cognitive Dissenter analyzes Obama’s political calculations.
Senate Majority Leader (and Mormon!!) Harry Reid also made a statement in support of gay marriage.
As churches become more conservative, the Community of Christ is sending this discussion back to the drawing board.
This issue is especially important to Mormons because Non-LDS Christianity doesnt value marriage as much as Mormonism.
JC Penney created an ad with a sweet picture of a lesbian-headed family, and the curmudgeon responds to religious complaints about it.
When it comes to gay marriage, who’s got your back? 88% of one particular belief category.
And a little justification for my comment @3.
“Eleonore” is a spammer who’s learned to give out a contentious argument on the blog post’s topic in order to seem like they’re actually participating in the discussion. Check out their website link.
Taryn — thanks! Sorry for falling for it, lol
@ chanson: I thought it was quite interesting that you posted a link with the CofChrist discussion and they noted that the Methodist church was undergoing the same types of difficulties that the Anglican community was undergoing with its European and American ideology (more liberal and less inclined to regulate sex through more narrow definitions of marriage) bumping up against the more conservative clergy and congregations of their African branches. I wonder whether the need to strictly define marriage is a lingering need to deal with the life and death situations that arise from unregulated or unsafe sex in Africa and the real lack of governmental infrastructure and welfare systems that Europe and America can depend upon. I suppose it would also have to be considered that conflict, economics, natural disasters (drought), lack of education for everyone and corrupt officials play a part in a community’s conservatism.
I think that everyone who voted for Obama in the first election could see that his positions on other social policy meant that even if he didn’t ‘come out of the closet’ in support of gay marriage, that he considered the necessity of equal rights (for all Americans, in this day and age) long overdue. Whether he’s going to say that out loud is a difference of style between the Larry Kramers of this world and the measured march toward civil rights of a person who realises he has to convince a lot of people to keep listening to the dialogue…of course, that seems little comfort to people who would really like to have equal rights to be with the person they love, for a variety of reasons (myself included).
All you have to do is look at South Africa to note that same-sex marriage legislation does not equal acceptance. All you have to do is look at France to see that greater acceptance does not necessarily guarantee you legislation (although Hollande is supposed to change that in 2013…)
It seems that precarity (lack of social and economic security) is correlated with seeking to enforce religious laws on the whole population. There are probably a lot of reasons for this — possibly lack of opportunity to be exposed to different cultures, or trying to find some way to take control of your situation, or a belief that God punishes a whole population for allowing sinners to exist in their midst.