For months, Obama has insisted his position on gaymarriage is “evolving”. Last night in NYC Obama
addressed a gay & lesbian event that cost $1,250 to
$35,800 (the legal maximum) per person to Obama’s
campaign & the Democratic National Committee to
attend. “We’re going to keep on fighting until the law
no longer treats committed partners who’ve been
together for decades like they’re strangers,” Obama
told a crowd of more than 600, many of whom had
come from other states to attend his first fundraiser
specifically for our LGBT community in the 2012
election cycle. Actor Neil Patrick Harris was the
emcee for this star-studded event. Though there
were shouts from the crowd, “Marriage” & “Do you
support it?” Obama just answered, “I hear you guys.”
He did address DOMA & his decision not to appeal
the court’s decision that found it unconstitutional
but unfortunately that’s about as far as he went.
Check OUT his speech in comments.
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Ever since I entered into public life, ever since I have a memory about what my mother taught me, and my grandparents taught me, I believed that discriminating against people was wrong. I had no choice. I was born that way. In Hawaii. And I believed that discrimination because of somebody’s sexual orientation or gender identity ran counter to who we are as a people, and it’s a violation of the basic tenets on which this nation was founded. I believe that gay couples deserve the same legal rights as every other couple in this country.
ReplyDeleteThis is why we’re making sure that hospitals extended visitation rights to gay couples, because nobody should be barred from their bedside their partner -- the beside of their partner in a moment of pain, or a moment of need. Nobody should have to produce a legal contract to hold the hand of the person that they love.
It’s why we launched the first comprehensive national HIV/AIDS strategy, providing a road map not only to providing treatment and reducing infections but also embracing the potential of new, groundbreaking research that will help us bring an end to this pandemic.
That’s why I ordered federal agencies to extend the same benefits to gay couples that go to straight couples wherever possible. That's why we’re going to keep fighting until the law no longer. That's why we’re going to keep on fighting until the law no longer treats committed partners who’ve been together for decades like they’re strangers.
That’s why I have long believed that the so-called Defense of Marriage Act ought to be repealed. It was wrong. It was unfair. And since I taught constitutional law for a while, I felt like I was in a pretty good position to agree with courts that have ruled that Section 3 of DOMA violates the Constitution. And that's why we decided, with my attorney general, that we could no longer defend the constitutionality of DOMA in the courts. Now, part of the reason that DOMA doesn't make sense is that traditionally marriage has been decided by the states. And right now I understand there’s a little debate going on here in New York -- about whether to join five other states and D.C. in allowing civil marriage for gay couples. And I want to -- I want to say that under the leadership of Governor Cuomo, with the support of Democrats and Republicans, New York is doing exactly what democracies are supposed to do. There’s a debate there’s deliberation about what it means here in New York to treat people fairly in the eyes of the law.
And that is -- look, that’s the power of our democratic system. It’s not always pretty. There are setbacks. There are frustrations. But in grappling with tough and, at times, emotional issues in legislatures and in courts and at the ballot box, and, yes, around the dinner table and in the office hallways, and sometimes even in the Oval Office, slowly but surely we find the way forward. That’s how we will achieve change that is lasting -– change that just a few years ago would have seemed impossible.