Will Black Voters Punish Obama for His Support of Gay Rights?
They say the arc of history bends toward justice. If that’s true then as a nation we’re having a hard time bending on the issue of gay rights. But this week will be remembered as an historic turning point because President Obama threw political caution to the wind and came out as the man who can put principle over politics in announcing his support for marriage equality. “I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama told Robin Roberts in an interview to appear on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Thursday.
Polls show America is trending toward embracing gay marriage. We now have a thin and growing majority that supports marriage equality. And we have the young Millennial generation strongly in favor of marriage equality while the older Boomers are firmly against. But national acceptance of gay marriage remains a long, hard slog. This week, North Carolina planted its feet in the past by becoming the 30th state to legally prohibit gay marriage and also abolished civil unions, thus enshrining romantic segregation in their state constitution. Separate and unequal in matters of the heart. We should all be ashamed that we’re still restricting civil rights to certain groups of Americans. Barring gays from marriage says their committed relationships don’t merit the protection or sanctity of marriage—an important step both socially and legally. It says their love and commitment is of lesser value. The sanctity of marriage in America has not been compromised by the thousands of married gay couples we already have. The institution of marriage was mocked by the sham made-for-TV 72 day marriage of Kim Kardashian and yet no bill has been proposed barring her from the altar.