Yesterday, in an interview with ABC's Robin Roberts, President Obama stated that after some thought and discussions with his family, he now supports same-sex marriage. His statement comes less than a week after both Vice-President Joe Biden and Education Secretary Arne Duncan voiced their endorsement of same-sex marriage, and after the President has said that his position was evolving, so it doesn't come as a huge surprise to many. The directness of his declaration did come as a bit of a shock; a pleasant one to some, and not so pleasant to others. Starting at around 2pm Chicago time, Twitter and Facebook began to explode with comments of gratitude, pride, and sheer happiness that the President would take the political risk to express his own view on this issue. Only a few hours later, the detractors started coming out, as we all knew they would. But why did he say this now, and what will be the ramifications?
First of all, the President in no way indicated that same-sex marriage would become part of his national agenda. He did say that the issue should be left up to the states to decide, and that he did not support any federal actions on the issue. Which is as it should be. Marriage is not - and should not be - a part of the U.S. Constitution. Unfortunately, the fact remains that 31 states have banned same-sex marriage. President Obama's endorsement does not negate any existing laws. Will it make people stop and think, possibly reconsider the fairness of those bans, and start the ball rolling towards repeal? Well, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it think, and the same holds true for people. But the short answer is yes, it might do just that. But for those who fear that Obama is now going to foist same-sex marriage upon the entire United States, relax. He has no intention of doing so.
Some people are suspicious when President Obama says he has changed his view on same-sex marriage. Have they never, upon reflection, changed their minds on an issue? Perhaps the problem is that they have never reflected. It's perfectly legitimate for a person's opinion to "evolve" on an issue. It's not flip-flopping; it's called growth, and given how the President said that talking with his family and seeing his gay staffers struggle helped to change his mind, I'm going to take him at his word that he went through that reflection and indeed honestly changed his mind. Even heads of state are allowed to do that, you know.
Others are claiming that, sincere or not, the President timed his statement for campaign purposes, in the hopes of gaining support in an election year. It seems to me that Obama has at least as much to lose as he does to gain by sharing his opinion on such a controversial issue. If this is really about election year pandering, it's certainly the riskiest kind. The easy thing to do would have been to keep his mouth shut on this particular explosive topic until after the election, and use another issue for "pandering". Biden's comments may or may not have forced his hand, but regardless, this was likely not timed to get votes.
But let's put politics aside for a moment. No, really. Here is what it boils down to. The President of the United States, one of the most powerful people in the world, and definitely one of the people who has the most to lose by speaking out on a controversial issue, has put aside what is politically expedient and spoken from the heart to publicly support same-sex marriage. That, in the infamous words of Vice-President Biden, is a big f-ing deal. And it's pretty cool. Same-sex marriage advocates should not waste energy worrying about his timing or his motives. Take this energy and run with it. Use it to open minds and change laws. Trickle-down economics may not work, but trickle-down fairness actually stands a chance.
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