Obama Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett said the President was “so absolutely delighted” that marriage equality votes in Maine, Maryland, Washington and Minnesota “all came down on the right side of history.”
These were the first public comments (made during a conference call Thursday night with supporters of the Human Rights Campaign) on the President’s reaction to the historic decisions in Maine, Maryland and Washington where same-sex marriage was legalized through popular vote and in Minnesota where voters opposed an amendment banning gay marriage.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled that Wisconsin is sending Tammy Baldwin to the Senate,” added Jarret, who noted that Baldwin, the first out LGBT senator, will be among several other women storming the Senate this January.
Dakotahgeo
Welllllll… even people who live in caves have to come out sometime when the sunshine hits them… they’re learning, slowly but surely!
Cam
This is why I thought that people like Joe Solomnase and the former leaders at HRC were so so bad for the gay rights movement.
They basically told gays to sit down, shut up and that anybody who supported gay marriage would lose elections and we needed to allow Democrats to say anti-gay things so they could get elected.
This proves how wrong they were.
Glad the President finally got the wake-up call. It’s a shame that the Log Cabiners would rather attack the President for finally waking up and speaking out for gay rights and support people like Mitt Romney who still say they oppose them.
BJ McFrisky
With everything he’s promised, I expect BHO himself to be personally performing gay weddings in the Rose Garden. Anything less is a slap in our faces.
Little-Kiwi
@BJ McFrisky: not really. he’s vocally supported the gay community. your own republican parents don’t.
just because the “black liberal” supports us and your own parents are ashamed of you is not a reason to be angry at President Obama.
the slap in your face isn’t comign from Obama. it’s from your family, who don’t care about you enough to vote for a President who considers you an equal human being of worth.
đ you pathetic little wimp đ
Little-Kiwi
i’m giggling at the fury from miserable white gay republicans. they’re oh-so-angry that the most pro-gay President in the history of the USA is a Black Liberal.
we get it, boys. your white republican families dont’ do a damned thing for you and you’re furious that the “type” of person you’ve been raised to hate is the one who’s done more for you than mom and dad ever will.
but you need to suck it up and realize, boys, that the folks who reared you are bigoted idiots. time to man up, grow a pair and a spine, and take a stand for once in your life.
or not. you can always sit back and miserably complain about liberals while we’re out doing the real work. as usual.
Cam
@BJ McFrisky:
Please list out the promises that you are referencing.
Oh wait, thats it, you are doing the typical right wing thing of inventing a conversation that never took place so you can then use it to defend a false point.
Ok, got it.
Little-Kiwi
@Cam: Cam, he HAS to. not a single member of his family supports the gay community. therefore these boys need to pretend that “blacks” are the problem
gay republicans should chug a bottle of dran-o.
sfbeast
@Little-Kiwi: LK, you make laugh whenever I read your comments. And you are sooooooo right. Well, more left, but I should have said correct. Thanks, and keep it up. From a fan in San Francisco.
Dakotahgeo
@BJ McFrisky: Be careful of what you wish for or predict; President Obama IS a practicing licensed Attorney and only needs local permission to marry any couple that ask him to perform their marriage cermony, silly boy!
redspyder
@Little-Kiwi:
Am I allowed to be angry at him because he’s more interested in being Celebrity in Chief than Commander in Chief?
Am I allowed to be angry at him for allowing his administration to deliberately misconstrue government numbers to make his administration look likes its performing better than it is? Because anyone who believes that unemployment in this country is 7.8% is nuts. That number – which by the way ignores every person who has been unemployed so long that they no longer qualify for benefits – doesn’t come close to capturing the reality of the situation.
Am I allowed to be angry at him because his administration (and he himself) deliberately tried to mislead the American public regarding the Al Qaeda attack on the embassy in Libya, because it didn’t fall in line with their campaign strategy of Obama destroying Al Qaeda?
Am I allowed to be angry that while he & his wife are multi-millionaires, the American taxpayer is forced to pay for the public assistance and welfare that supports his aunt who is an immigrant from Kenya? My brother’s fiance is from South America – he had to prove he could financially support her to get her immigration approved.
Am I allowed to be angry that he has already made promises to the GLBT community that he ignored until he needed their support for a re-election?
Am I allowed to be angry that as a hard working business owner, he wants to take MORE from me to subsidise the ever expanding government and welfare programs – which includes his Obamacare programs that were debated and approved behind closed doors, despite much vaunted promises of “openness”?
Am I allowed to be angry that every time someone criticises his actions or his administration, they are immediately accused of being racist? A practice encouraged by members of the liberal media? Google “Journolist listserv”. One journalist specifically recommends calling critics ‘racists’ as a means of counteracting that criticism. I see you’ve taken that lesson to heart.
While you’re busy patting yourself on the back for supporting a ‘Black Liberal’ president (oooh – look how progressive you are!), I’ll keep holding him to the expectations I have of ANY president, regardless of his race. And I’ll keep trying to keep my company running and keep my employees earning their paychecks. After all, its the taxes on the money that we earn that you liberals are working so hard to get.
NYCJD
This is such bullshit. Obama played the “gay marriage is against my religious belief” all through his Presidency. It was ONLY after Joe Biden made statements in support of full marriage rights for gay men and women, did Obama’s opinon start to “evolve” as he called it. What evolved was a smoke and mirror session of taking credit for Biden’s bold move. Suddenly at the last minute he’s the poster boy for gay rights ? Sorry…my memory is better than that. You sold me down the river for too long, Barry.
DuMaurier
Now now, let’s not bicker. Obama is not perfect, and yes, he needs to do some things he’s put off (e.g., signing the executive order banning orientation discrimination for Federal contractors, pushing much harder for ENDA, etc), but Tuesday’s victories certainly owe a lot to him. I don’t think any politician ever acts from perfectly pure, principled motives, but that’s life. It’s certainly a big difference from 2008, when the Prop 8 people were able to use recordings of his “I believe marriage is between a man and a woman” in robo-calls to voters(!) So sure, push him hard to do more, but at least once in a while take a moment and reflect on how different things would be if McCain had been elected.
BJ McFrisky
@NYCJD: Bingo. Why everyone else prefers rose-colored shades on the issue is beyond me. And the old horseshit of, “We’d all be in concentration camps if a Republican was in the White House” is just scare tactics that work only on the feeble-minded.
dbmyers
@NYCJD: You’re either a short sighted nincompoop, or, more likely, a troll. We should be celebrating our victories and all of the people who helped us achieve them, including, and especially President Obama!
bmwblonde
@BJ McFrisky: So many gay men spend so much of their time dragging around their (totally legitimate) grief at all the ridiculous and totally outrageous bullshit we have all endured. BUT, “a slap in the face?” Because the President of the US doesn’t start personally marrying queers? Wow. Talk about a GIGANTIC chip on one’s shoulder. If you can find a GOOD (preferably Buddhist) therapist — to get all the stuck, stored grief and rage in this post OUT of you, you too can start celebrating all the positive stuff that IS happening. The POINT of therapy is: “To remember EVERYTHING, without ever RELIVING anything.” You ain’t there yet. Or as Colonel Jack O’Neill famously said in one of the Stargate episodes: “Let’s get on with things; let’s not DWELL.” Best of luck with this. We all need to MOVE ON. (PS: If you have a chip on your shoulder, no one ELSE ever has to oppress you).
Billysees
@DuMaurier: Re 11, “Now now…
So very very well said DuMaurier.
We should always be thankful for a “friend-such-as-this” in the White House of all places.
Little-Kiwi
you show me a gay republican with the balls to stand up to their bigoted family and party and i’ll show you a unicorn.
GreenmanTN
@BJ McFrisky:
Gay Republicans are so hilarious in a sick sort of way. If Obama doesn’t run around like Rip Taylor on the Gong Show screaming “Oh-Emm-Gee! Gay marriage is, like, SO boss and I’m, like, TOTALLY going to make that my #1 legislative agenda!” then he hasn’t done enough. But then they’ll turn right around and endorse a candidate who says we’re freaks of nature and just lucky that although many of his supporters want to kill us outright he has a more “moderate” stance on the issue. “I’m not for gay concentration camps, but concentration CONDOS? We haven’t ruled it out yet but my team and I are still weighing all the issues.”
GOProud and half of the Log Cabin Republicans would jizz themselves over that much validation from a GOP candidate. But if Obama doesn’t show up at a gay pride parade dressed as Diana Ross then he’s a gay-hater.
And god forbid that logic and reason ever intrude.
Little-Kiwi
gay republicans should be happy with the outcome of the election. enough people with consciences and brains voted for Barack Obama that “we” won – and we saw lgbt and lgbt-supportive people elected to office. marriage equality measures pass.
gay republicans were able to vote for Romney, thus ensuring at their ability to convince their bigoted piece-of-s**t families that they’re still cowardly wimps who won’t embarrass them by demanding Equality, and everyone else voted to make the actual rights and freedoms of those gay republican losers a reality.
so be happy, gay republicans! you voted alongside mommy and daddy, and yet the party doing the most for you still won.
đ
GreenmanTN
Amen, Little Kiwi.
Personally I believe all gay people should have rights, UNLESS you actively campaigned for a candidate who was against them.
It’s like campaigning for George Wallace in Alabama in the 1960s because you liked his position on property taxes. You can’t say you “don’t agree” with a politician’s social agenda when you just fucking voted for him!
These sick fucks go on and on about how gay rights are a distraction from the “real” issues and endorse candidates who wouldn’t just curtail future gay rights advances but repeal those we’ve already gained, then they slip off to NY or MA to marry their same-sex partner even though they opposed gay marriage every step of the way.
No. You opposed gay rights in the name of your GOP masters so you don’t get to take advantage of the advances those awful “leftist, communist” gay rights activists won despite you. Jimmy Saliva opposes gay rights every chance he gets. He didn’t build that so he should by-god live by the rules he tried to help impose on others.
Little-Kiwi
Greenman, it’s something we like to call “I don’t want what i haven’t got”. or “i don’t want what i know i can’t get”
namely, Equality and the support of friends and family.
that’s why gay republicans can’t use facts. they actually don’t want Equality nor a culture that embraces LGBT people.
why?
because it’ll only reinforce to them the reality that their own families dont’ love or respect them.