President Obama has to step out the closet and support gay marriage.
Especially after Vice President Joe Biden told the country that he is:
“Absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men and women marrying another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties.”
In the last few days, Obama has been hinting that he will in fact support same-sex marriage at some point in time; he has already gone on record to say that he is in favor of civil unions. But unlike his Republican counterparts, he has yet to take an immediate stance on the issue.
The pressure for a position is coming from all sides. CNN’s Anderson Cooper was the most recent to call the President out:
“The President’s position on gay marriage is anything but precise. Mr. Biden said he’s comfortable with the fact same-sex couples are entitled to all the same exact rights, all of the civil rights, all the civil liberties.”
Former New York Gov. George Pataki challenged Obama on his radio show:
“Either you’re for something or you’re against it.” Pataki accused Obama of “looking to have both sides where he’s appealing to those who are supportive of gay marriage but is afraid to alienate those who don’t.”
His critics are correct. Take a stand Mr. President, you’re the one that ended Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the military policy that once banned gay service-members from serving openly, so it’s only right that you finish the job and put your support behind gay marriage.
But here’s the other problem, Obama is a tactician, so he’s waiting for the right time to express his views on the issue, while at the same time he doesn’t want to offend a small portion of the black church that look at gay marriage the same way right wing Republicans do.
For instance, Amendment One, which is slated for a vote today in North Carolina, is expected to be struck down, making NC the 31st state to have approved amendments to block gay unions.
And here’s the Catch-22 for Barack, in 2008 he received more than 90 percent of the NC black vote. So come election time if he is in favor of gay marriage, what’s going to happen?
The large black congregations are set to hit the polls and strike down Amendment One as many of the churchgoers cite Genesis and the Gospels as defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman, and quote from Leviticus in the Old Testament and Paul in the New, which call same-gender sex abominable, perverse and shameful.
The state NAACP has also joined the conversation, as they are leading the fight to defeat the amendment, which would make traditional marriage the only legal union in the state.
You would think that blacks would be the most sympathetic to the plight of gay Americans fighting for equality, but the fact of the matter is, they’re not and people are the same all over the world.
Black people are not better or worse than anybody, they’re just people. And unfortunately for Obama and all of us, you would think that they would have more understanding towards those who are discriminated against. Either way, Obama must take a stand on this divisively important issue – for once and for all.
Shaka Griffith is the News/Politics Editor of GlobalGrind.com Follow him on twitter @Darealshaka.
