Yesterday, Barack Obama made a wise and moral choice in publicly coming out in favor of same sex marriages:

… in an interview with ABC News, President Obama said, “I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.”

With that one statement, he made it clear that he believes that it’s wrong to prevent couples who are in loving, committed relationships from getting married. …

In the interview, he said that he had discussed the issue around the dinner table with his wife and daughters. He said he’d heard from service members who, even after the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, felt constrained because they aren’t allowed to get married.

Obama finally did the right thing as President and stood up for marriage equality — putting love and compassion above immoral politicking.

Young people overwhelmingly support same sex marriage, and that means, as they age and become part of the mainstream mindset, acceptance of marriage equality will become the norm and not the outlier it is today:

Younger generations express higher levels of support for same-sex marriage.

In 2012 Pew Research Center polling, Millennials are twice as likely as the Silent Generation to support same-sex marriage.

I’ve never understood people who wanted to mandate affection and control love because, as history teaches us, there’s no winning against trying to cleave that sort of emotional connection.  People will die for love and they will fight for human equivalency, and to try to disembed those markers of being alive is to deny, in full, the reciprocity of respect that we all must gift each other in order to move forward as a society.

Obama did the right thing yesterday, and now the rest of it is up to us to support him and to help make marriage equality as ordinary as breathing in the fresh air of freedom every single day of our ongoing, love-filled, lives.

17 Comments

  1. Obama chose money, not love. A bunch of big donors were threatening to drop Obama over his lack of stance on Gay Marriage. The NC Amendment 1 vote tipped them over the edge.

    1. Hey jonolon! Great to hear from you again.

      For some reason, you’re getting marked as Spam by Akismet — I had to clear this comment from you.

      I think I accidentally cleared a Spam queue on one of the blogs last week and, for an instant, I thought I saw the familiar flash of your Gravatar before the queue was emptied. If you posted a comment and it didn’t show up, please let me know. I’m watching all 14 queues much closer now. SMILE!

      I think Biden’s big mouth was the tipping point. He wanted to save this moment when it would make a real difference. I do think he’s more interested in love than money, though.

      1. Yes. Leftist bloggers decided to mark a bunch of comments as spam, feeding me to the Akismet demons, and Akismet support has made it explicitly clear to me that they approve of this action and refuse to correct the situation. Hence, I’m effectively censored and my 1st Amendment rights violated.

        It’s not worth taking them court over it though since it’s too doubtful that I could harm them enough to shut down WordPress.com and Akismet.

        1. jonolan —

          I can’t imagine Akismet support officially and publicly condones coordinated censorship of your comments. It goes against their nature and the policy of their service.

          I recommend you write a detailed note to Akismet support addressed to Mark Riley:

          http://automattic.com/about/

          Mark is the head support guy for Automattic and I promise he will fix this for you.

          Use the Akismet contact form here to find Mark:

          http://akismet.com/contact/

          and to detail your problems and it will get fixed. I am happy to support your effort as needed.

          You have always been a pleasure to entertain in my blogs with comments and replies, and you can direct Akismet support to look at the comments you have posted in my blogs over time. You are always respectful. You never curse. You don’t call names. You don’t link to nasty things or Spammy matters. You just clearly share your point of view — and that is refreshing and delightful.

          Akismet is never supposed to be used as a censorship tool — THERE’S A “TRASH” button for that! SMILE! — so this needs to get fixed for you and for the benefit of everyone who relies on Akismet to remain fair and impartial when it comes to expressing genuine opinions. I’ve never seen Akismet so routinely block such clearly non-Spam comments.

          Clearing you in Akismet here seems to have solved the problem on this blog. Your reply to me was posted automatically without any intervention from me — and that tells me Akismet is working as expected when corrected — that’s a good thing. I hope you’ll take a moment to comment on all our other blogs so I can clear you and start to get this fixed inside Akismet for you system-wide.

          I thank you for your patience, dear friend! We may not always agree, but reading your commentary is always enlightening and on point!

          1. It’d be nice if what you say were accurate but it was following the same steps that you recommended that got me a response that essentially said that users decide what is to be spammed, neither Aksimet nor Automattic will spend the time to correct it since it would be recurring and they won’t White List, and that I should expect this sort of thing and not comment on blogs that are run by people with differing political beliefs.

          3. Honestly, what can they do? They maintain that the users decide what is spam and it’s been proven that many Liberals will use the automated spam reporting features – e.g., the recent “twitter gulag” of Conservatives – to silence their opposition.

            My initial response in these comments was really more sarcasm than real anger though. Freedom of speech doesn’t mandate a venue and it doesn’t trump Free Association. 🙂 Nor can Akismet be held accountable for users’ suborning of its features or be forced to change their model.

          4. There’s a problem when a few people can effectively silence you in millions of other places. There needs to be an Automattic review policy in place to decide if you’ve been fairly marked as a Spammer or not. Akismet must not be used as a political censorship tool. The Akismet Gods can just as early un-mark you and clear your reputation moving forward as easily as you’ve been non-righteously condemned to the eternal Spam queue.

  2. On the plane ride to Seattle the person in front of me was watching fox news where Governor Romney stated that he was against gay marriage but felt they should get equal civil rights. Not quite the same as support.

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    1. I’m not sure what point you’re making, Lillian and I see you’re quoting the Washington Times.

      Here’s an article on Reagan and AIDS from the San Francisco Chronicle:

      Following discovery of the first cases in 1981, it soon became clear a national health crisis was developing. But President Reagan’s response was “halting and ineffective,” according to his biographer Lou Cannon. Those infected initially with this mysterious disease — all gay men — found themselves targeted with an unprecedented level of mean-spirited hostility.

      A significant source of Reagan’s support came from the newly identified religious right and the Moral Majority, a political-action group founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell. AIDS became the tool, and gay men the target, for the politics of fear, hate and discrimination. Falwell said “AIDS is the wrath of God upon homosexuals.” Reagan’s communications director Pat Buchanan argued that AIDS is “nature’s revenge on gay men.”

      With each passing month, death and suffering increased at a frightening rate. Scientists, researchers and health care professionals at every level expressed the need for funding. The response of the Reagan administration was indifference.

      By Feb. 1, 1983, 1,025 AIDS cases were reported, and at least 394 had died in the United States. Reagan said nothing. On April 23, 1984, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced 4,177 reported cases in America and 1,807 deaths. In San Francisco, the health department reported more than 500 cases. Again, Reagan said nothing. That same year, 1984, the Democratic National Convention convened in San Francisco. Hoping to focus attention on the need for AIDS research, education and treatment, more than 100,000 sympathizers marched from the Castro to Moscone Center.

      http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/06/08/EDG777163F1.DTL

      1. It’s a personal choice, not a national choice. And the almost immediate reaction of the group was to slander themselves much more than you or I or Joe Blow could or would. It’s just sad.

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