Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart makes some prescient observations about Obama’s ”evolution” on marriage equality. He points out the prominent role gay and lesbian couples played at the recent White House state dinner:
For a man who maintains that he is “evolving” on the issue of same-sex marriage, President Obama is pretty evolved on the matter already. As a guest at Wednesday’s state dinner for British Prime Minister David Cameron, I know of at least two legally married same-sex couples in attendance. You’ve probably seen the arrival photo of Daily Beast/Newsweek writer Andrew Sullivan walking hand-in-hand with his husband, Aaron Tone.
What you didn’t see — unless you were watching C-SPAN — was Sally Susman, daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain, walking in hand-in-hand with her wife, Robin Canter. Not only that, Susman proudly introduced Canter as her wife to all they met. Extraordinary occurrences in the people’s house, yet ordinary, as heterosexual couples have done this without shame on countless occasions.
An equally powerful signal was sent from the president’s table.
As my colleagues at The Reliable Source reported, the Obama administration has “an unspoken tradition” of “seating a same-sex couple at the table.” The honor went to Chad Griffin and Jerome Fallon. That Griffin is the incoming president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is not remarkable. HRC, the largest civil rights organization for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, has had a good working relationship with Obama (see, repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell”).
What makes Griffin’s placement symbolic is what has made him a meteoric leader in LGBT equality. He is the force behind American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), an organization he founded in the wake of California voters passing Proposition 8, the measure that added a ban on same-sex marriage to that state’s constitution.
I had the pleasure of meeting Capehart at a dinner a few years ago in Miami Beach. Aside from being an excellent writer and community representative, he is a very nice guy. If you have not had a chance to follow his work at the Washington Post, please consider doing so.
There is no doubt in my mind that President Obama isn’t “evolving” on same-sex marriage. He has always been in our corner. He has long agreed to civil unions with all of the rights of marriage. He is waiting for the country to evolve. The question is when will he be willing to risk political fallout on our behalf on this issue. He learned what happened to Bill Clinton when he was going to allow gays to serve openly in the military as soon as he got into office.
The reason I have no doubt that he has been there for a long time is because of his support of all the same rights as marriage with civil unions. Nobody is going to ever convince me that an educated African American who is an expert in constitutional law would ever believe that “Separate But Equal” would ever be a viable, workable option.
I am certain that Obama will support same-sex marriage if he gets back into office. It would be nice if he was proactive in not keeping it off the Democratic Party Platform for this election. That is to be seen.
Everyone knows that Obama has been pandering to bigots regarding marriage equality, even though those same bigots would rather burn in fictional hell than support Obama. And he doesn’t have to wait for the country to evolve, considering that every single poll on the subject shows that a majority of Americans — and an even greater majority of potential Obama voters — support marriage equality. If anyone can adequately explain why he’s conducted this farce, I’m all ears.
As to DADT, HRC had nothing to do with its passage. If it was up to them, it, in fact, never would have happened — just as Obama was planning for it not to happen. Many individuals and groups were responsible for the repeal of DADT, but none of them were the HRC or Obama. This is recorded history, but apparently it’s a history, and a very recent one, that’s somehow unknown to Jonathan Capehart, which is very disappointing.
Justme, some of us are trying to move things forward. This requires that we give people whatever small amount of credit they deserve. If we refuse to give credit to any politician who isn’t perfect, we do our cause a disservice. Unfortunately, some of us would rather indulge in endless grievance collection.
@Rick Rosendall, By that logic, as far as DADT is concerned, just as much credit goes to GetEqual’s protests and Log Cabin Republicans’ lawsuit.
I’m looking forward to Obama finishing his evolution very soon, as well as signing the ENDA order ASAP.
[...] Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart reported this week that President Obama may be signaling a new direction: “For a man who maintains that he [...]
“Truth winds out”? Oh pulease! What a perfect example of Janet Malcolm’s famous line that “Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible.”
Obama didn’t evolve he just rose from the dead. What lazy journalism. Another White House stenographer? Here are the irrefutable facts any sophomore could find in 16 Google minutes.
In a 1996 statement Obama said ‘I FAVOR LEGALIZING SAME-SEX MARRIAGES’. In Chicago and Outlines article reported Obama WAS A SUPPORTER OF SAME-SEX MARRIAGE. Obama’s answer to the 1996 Outlines question was very clear: “I FAVOR LEGALIZING SAME-SEX MARRIAGES, AND WOULD FIGHT EFFORTS TO PROHIBIT SUCH MARRIAGES.” There was no use of “civil unions,” no compromise whatsoever.
That same wear IMPACT, which was Chicago’s main LGBT political action committee for several years, surveyed Obama and asked if he’d a Marriage Resolution which read in part “BECAUSE MARRIAGE IS A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT AND AN INDIVIDUAL PERSONAL CHOICE, RESOLVED, THE STATE SHOULD NOT INTERFERE WITH SAME-GENDER COUPLES WHO [ CHOOSE ] TO MARRY AND SHARE FULLY AND EQUALLY IN THE RIGHTS, RESPONSIBILITIES AND COMMITMENT OF CIVIL MARRIAGE.” Obama responded: “I WOULD SUPPORT SUCH A RESOLUTION.”
To now say what he said 16 years ago is NOT evolution. It’s flopping back from where he flipped before. See also Obama on Marriage Equality: Eight years behind Dick Cheney! at http://open.salon.com/blog/f_arouete/2012/05/11/obama_on_marriage_equality_eight_years_behind_dick_cheney
And see also Part 2: Obama Eight years behind Cheney at http://open.salon.com/blog/f_arouete/2012/05/12/part_2_obama_eight_years_behind_cheney
Francois said ““Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible.”
That’s nonsense only a fool would believe. It may be true with some journalists but it is certainly not true with every journalist.
What’s your point Francois? Are you suggesting that Obama, a known politician, flip-flopped? Oh my, I had no idea that politicians did that!
I’m sorry that Obama’s historic move to be the first president to come out in favor of marriage equality is not enough for you. I’m sorry that the President and the staff at Truth Wins Out is not pure enough for your tastes.
Maybe one day we will evolve into Francois Arouete and be pure as the driven snow and so morally superior that we will also bash our allies to make ourselves feel good and morally superior.
That is our new goal.