Michelle Obama: Supreme Court Appointees Will Affect ‘Whether We Can Love Whomever We Choose’

Wayne Besen March 20, 2012

Ace reporter Chris Geidner at Metro Weekly reports:

At multiple events in New York City on Monday, March 19, First Lady Michelle Obama — in campaigning for her husband’s re-election — made reference to the effect that Supreme Court appointees will have on “whether we can … love whomever we choose.”

Although she did not explicitly mention marriage equality, the possibility of a case raising that issue reaching the Supreme Court has been a regular topic of discussion — particularly in light of the challenge to California’s marriage amendment, Proposition 8, that is currently being considered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

About the Author

Wayne Besen is the Founding Executive Director of Truth Wins Out and author of “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth” (Haworth, 2003). In 2010, Besen was awarded the “Visionary Award” at the Out Music Awards for organizing the American Prayer Hour, an event which shined a spotlight on the role American evangelicals played in the introduction of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

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2 Comments

justme March 20, 2012 at 12:48 pm -

I hope Michelle did some stretching before twisting herself into that pretzel.

I won’t get into whether love is a choice or not — although I resent the implications “choose” has as a codeword — but we can love whomever we choose right now.

What we can’t do is have our marriages recognized by the federal government. Or have our marriages recognized across the country. Like citizens can in 11 other countries in the world.

The same marriages her husband insists he doesn’t support, even though we know that’s a lie.

As I said, don’t hurt your back there, Mrs. O.
Jim Hlavac March 20, 2012 at 3:12 pm -

From what I can gather from unrelated reports there are numerous cases heading for the Supreme Court over gay marriage; perhaps upwards of 2 dozen. Maybe the high court will consolidate them all, maybe not. The Supremes, however, don’t, won’t and can’t have an “effect” on whether the relationships exist whatsoever — although they’ll have a deciding say on whether those relationships are recognized by the federal gov’t and the states to which we pay taxes.

As I say, gay marriage is not illegal whatsoever. Nor banned. Nor prohibited. The only thing DOMA does (and the mini-DOMAs,) makes illegal, bans and prohibits is whether the gov’t can recognize the reality of gay couples’ existence. DOMA is a law about what the government can do, not what gay couples can do. No individual or couple can be cited or penalized under the law, only government.