Yesterday the White House’s response to the North Carolina legislature’s decision to put a marriage- equality ban on the May 2012 ballot indicated President Obama opposes laws “designed to take rights away.”
So why didn’t Obama mention that to the crowd of largely sympathetic North Carolina State University students that he spoke to just 24 hours later?
True, today’s speech was about his recent jobs bill, but:
More than 75 [local] business leaders signed the letter [to North Carolina legislators], which says, in part, “We write to oppose this extreme amendment because of the significant harm it will cause our state’s pro-business environment, its major employers, and efforts to spur job creation in North Carolina.”
Maybe Obama’s staying mum while in the state in hopes of getting congressional Republicans to vote for his jobs bill. But if the Republican opposition to his other bills are any indication, they’re not gonna whether he slams the GOPs for anti-business bigotry or not.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Another wretched nugget: the NC legislature said that it moved the ballot referendum to May instead of November to “remove politics” from the vote. What they failed to mention however is that the May ballot is also the Republican caucus vote, basically ensuring that GOPs will come out in droves to help pass the anti-gay law.
“Remove politics” our ass.
Image via Marcn
russ
Let me get this straight, Daniel Villareal.
President Obama is the main impediment to the advancement of gay rights, right ?
Not the antigay Republican frontrunners and their financial supporters.
Not the religious right.
The president who ended Don’t ask, Don’t tell is the problem.
Why don’t you just acknowlege, up front, your Republican bias and report from a position of honesty instead of trying to manipulate your readers into thinking that this is a liberal blog which has an honest beef with a liberal President ?
Alex
@russ:
If you read any of Daniel Villareal’s other postings, you would know that he is actually quite progressive. He’s just honest that the president, while a general friend to gays, requires prodding at times to push progressive legislation (gay or generic, just ask the labor unions). Being able to criticize one’s leaders is a good thing. It shows a lack of blind following that we often see in Soviet, err, I meant, GOP politics.
christopher di spirito
President Obama opposes gay marriage.
Dick Cheney supports gay marriage.
Barry, learn from your cousin.
Riker
Because Obama is a weak President, that’s why. He spent all his political capital on Obamacare, and now insists on placating Republicans in an effort to compromise. Republicans know this, so their initial position is so extreme that they get exactly what they wanted anyway.
Steve
@Alex wrote: “… Soviet, err, I meant, GOP politics.”
Please do not insult the Soviet Russians. At least they pretended to be acting for the benefit of the common people. The Fascist party in the USA does not even make any pretense.
the crustybastard
@russ:
A court ended the military gay ban.
Obama undid the court, insisting on a “repeal” that still mandates discrimination and locks the courthouse doors to the thousands who’ve already been wronged.
Yep. He’s a real champion.
I won't grow up
When are my gay brothers and sisters going to wake up and realize, this man and his ilk will say ANYTHING to get re-elected. He is just like any other politician on the right or the left, who will patronize and give lip service to any cause, any minority or any other ideology to remain in office. For God’s sake people his approval rating keeps dropping and the congress has a lower approval rating than people who want to crack to mthird graders. We can’t trust any of them to help us, and I unfortunately don’t have the answer short of “By any means necessary”.
ewe
The Bummer wants all of us to call our congress representatives now that he needs his agendas last ploy to pass through the legislation in order to get reelected. The Bummer can start packin his bags and get a move on out of the White House. Until the Bummer says that being gay and having equality is a non issue he can go fuck himself. Today is September 14, 2011. Does anyone know whether or not the Bummer has evolved yet?
ewe
@russ: Why don’t you come out and tell all of us how the Bummer is pro gay equality when we have to spend all our time fighting each and every fucking state one by one to achieve what the Bummer takes for granted himself? That’s a question Ms. Demoncrap. Next time you want to try and say their is such a difference between Demoncunts and Repuglycants try it on someone who is a RupugnantCon not us.
Cam
@russ: said…
“The president who ended Don’t ask, Don’t tell is the problem.”
____________________-
Actually the White House announced that there would be NO repeal of DADT last year. The grass roots put on the pressure and Pelosi told Obama that a repeal was going to be voted on whether he wanted it or not. Then the White house inserted ADDITIONAL time hurdles etc… and it only passed when it became obvious that the courts were going to strike it down.
So while Obama is much better for us than the current crop of GOP nuts, please don’t try to rewrite history and pretend that he was in any way a force behind the repeal.
Reason
@christopher di spirito: The president doesn’t need to learn anything from the torturous Cheney. The president needs to support marriage because it is the moral thing to do, not out of the selfish desire of supporting only what benefits your own. If Cheney daughter was not a lesbian he would not be supporting anything gay, he would be working to destroy us. with your logic the president should never support anything gay unless he finds out that his family stands to gain.
christopher di spirito
@Reason: If you can pull your head out of Obama’s rectum long enough, I’d love to hear you explain how your hero managed to evolve backward, having been pro-marriage equality back in Chi-town only to become a conserva-Dem on the issue once he ran for the US senate and later, president.
The Artist
Continue to put down Mr. Obama. They good thing that would come of it would be a new republican party rule and we all know how beautiful that work the last time. So go ahead be a critic, vote against him, make your voice be heard. Just remember with every cause, there is an effect. PEACELUVNBWILD!
CBRad
@The Artist: what in the world is PEACELUVNBWILD ?
darkskin bttms R survivors
@The Artist: Love let these whores go ahead and “bump their gums”. Gay folk are “microwave bitches”, they want it in a hot minute.. I hope a GOP becomes POTUS in 2012 so these bitches on Queerty can shit, piss, and cry..
Reason
@christopher di spirito: what does that have to do with taking the wrong lesson from a bad person. read your own comment, seems like you have lost it. If you have questions for the president that are completely unrelated to my previous comment, write him and ask him. If you had a comment related to mine you should have responded to it instead of trying to change the subject. I am not the presidents spokesman, nor is he my hero.
christopher di spirito
@Reason: “I am not the presidents spokesman, nor is he my hero.” Even the O-Bots can’t stand by their man.
Secure Straight Men Aren't Homophobes
As the old saying goes: “Republicans fear their base, while Democrats loath their base.”
When the Democrats start to fear the consequences of f*cking over their supporters, then will you see more loyalty to these lying hypocrites at the DNC.
When the GOP took control of the House, the first thing they did was vote on a series of anti-abortion laws that didn’t have a snowballs’ chance in hell of passing the Senate. The majority of Americans are against most of the fanatical culture issues the Republicans push, but that doesn’t stop them because the GOP is scared sh*tless of their base who wants that agenda pushed through legislation.
Meanwhile, the Democrats can’t even stand up and fight for equality for a huge chunk of their base (GLBT voters make up 16% of the Democratic voting base, according to some exit polls, in a number of large voting districts). The equality of GLBT Americans has far more support from the general public than forcing prayer in public schools and anti-abortion laws do — yet the Republicans support those divisive issues and the Democrats will not even support equal rights for its supporters (other than giving it lip service during elections). This is how Blue Dog Democrats treated Black folks in the South until the 1964 Civil Rights Act which was passed over their objections and caused many Southern Democrats, like Strom Thurman, to create a Southern fascist version of the once moderate, pro-civil rights Northern Republican party.
And Obots wonder why the GLBT community is so disgusted with Obama and his ilk? The Democratic party thinks that GLBT fear of the Republican Boogie Man is enough to make us vote for them like cringing cowards and that they don’t have to do anything else for us but get elected — and then ignore us. …Well, you get what you ask for when you ask for nothing more but the promise of a occasionally less hateful bigot to represent your interest in Washington. The only power we have is to withhold our vote, or at least threaten to do so, when those we hire to represent us fail to do so. If the carrot doesn’t work then sometimes you only have the stick to work with.
Riker
@Secure Straight Men Aren’t Homophobes: The thing is, fear of Republicans *is* enough to make 95% of voting gays vote Democratic. Until we threaten to vote Republican, and then actually /follow through/ on our threat, they won’t stand up and actively fight for our rights.
CJ
Barak Obama doesn’t support gay marriage. “Evolving”
Michele Obama – ?
But…
Dick Cheney supports gay marriage.
Liz Cheney supports gay marriage.
Laura Bush supports gay marriage.
Meghan McCain supports gay marriage.
Cindy McCain supports gay marriage.
Ted Olsen (Prop 8 and former Bush SG) supports gay marriage.
Ken Mehlmen (former GOP operative) supports gay marriage.
Elizabeth Hasselbeck supports gay marriage.
Christie Todd Whitman supports gay marriage.
Tim Kaine (DNC Chair) doesn’t even support civil unions.
Every Democratic presidential candidate in 2008 was against gay marriage. They support “traditional” marriage.
It’s a lie to assume that all Democrats are for equality and that all Republicans are against. The above list shows that “evolving” is occurring amongst many people – both Democrats AND Republicans.
fredo777
@christopher di spirito: Dick Cheney’s lukewarm stance on marriage equality is not really supporting gay marriage.
russ
One more thing.
Why don’t you change your logo to “Queerty : Free of an agenda. Except that Republican one”.
Judging from the comments here most of your readers would have no problem with that.
Greening1322
As a resident of NC and a married lesbian we don’t give. Fuck about President Obama personal evolvement on marriage equality. It’s not about him! It’s about us. As with any opposite sex couple our struggle does not speak to him. We lgbt in NC have to work to get the vote out on May 6, 2012. Write a story on getting the vote out! This obama talk is a distraction!!!!!!
delurker
@CJ: hey dumbass, NONE of those Repubs currently hold any elected office. Show me one currently elected repuke who supports gay marriage. i am waiting.
CJ
@fredo777: A lukewarm stance on marriage equality is not really supporting gay marriage? Huh???? I would certainly agree that he’s not out their pushing it. But, he’s never been shy about stating his view in interviews. As far back as 2004 he was further along than Obama is today when Cheney said: “With the respect to the question of relationships, my general view is freedom means freedom for everyone. People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to.” I’m not sure why you think this is lukewarm. It’s just as supportive as anyone else who desires full equality. Granted, he’s not carrying rainbow flags with him. He’s generally just a past VP who gives interviews and answers the questions he’s asked.
SteveC
I will not be voting for Obama to be re-elected.
Naturally I won’t vote Republican again.
The USA is no longer a democracy, when irrespective of who you vore for, the priority will be big business.
From now on I will support direct action and civil unrest.
These politicians do not reperesent the USA. Their purpose is simply to provide a fake facade of democracy.
Make no mistake the USA is a democracy in name only.
Reason
@CJ: Tim Kaine is not the DNC Chair. For starters which one of those people are in office? Next the list includes people who have gays in their immediate family or are gay themselves, their support stems from pure self-interest. You comments are like asking if there are democrats that are against abortion, like me, then using that to say that dems have strong pro-life bona fides.
fredo777
@CJ: Genuine support for a cause, in my opinion, requires action (or, at the very least, a more spirited argument) in favor of said cause. It would be the same as if Obama stated tomorrow that he thinks all Americans “should be able to enter into whatever relationship they would like”, but doesn’t really do anything in his power to make that happen. Is Cheney okay with same-sex marriage? Sure (as long as we don’t try to get it on a federal level). I’d be interested to see how supportive he is of marriage for everybody (!) if he were the actual president, though.
That said, I don’t think Obama’s “evolving” stance on same-sex marriage is impressive, either, + it’s one of the things about him that I definitely Hope will Change.
ewe
@The Artist: you run on fear. Get back in your hole.
ewe
@The Artist: and you’re an artist with that type of rhetoric???
ewe
@Greening1322: yada yada yada. The Leader of our country is just a distraction in your mind????
ewe
@russ: Judging from your comments you don’t read what others are writing. If anything people here are totally fucking fed up with the Demoncants and the Repuglcunts. That is called being and Independent perhaps or a different third party affiliation. You with the either or yes and no good and bad right and wrong rigid ideology makes me want to puke. You are like a broken record going on and on with that crap for thirty years now.
christopher di spirito
@fredo777: So what would you call President Obama’s?
fredo777
@christopher di spirito: If you read reply No. 28, you’ll see my opinion on Obie’s stance, as well.