US President Obama says same-sex couples should be able to marry

[.:CoralSoda:.]

Good for him, I never have paid much attention to politics and since he was a democrat I always thought he was for gay marriage anyways. But it's nice to hear, really hope he gets re-elected now.

 

[-ty-]

The only thing worse than a bigoted candidate is a bigoted candidate who pretends to be a tolerant candidate.

Well, from this record on LGBT rights, do you think that Obama was "pretending" to be tolerant?

http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/...nd-legislative-advancements-on-behalf-of-lgbt

Most of these advancements have not received much attention. He has done a tremendous amount of work for LGBT people. You may not agree with his other politics or his stance of same sex marriage, but it is outlandish to insinuate that he is a "bigot" or "intolerance" or gay people. If he is, he has a funny way of showing it!

 

[Netto Azure]

Actions speak louder than words after all. The best argument people could come up with was "Why didn't he campaign against it in North Carolina then?" which turns out to have been a better backdrop as it turns out.

 

[Harmonie]

While it certainly is great to hear a president say that they support same-sex marriage, I'm just not satisfied. He says he 'personally' supports it and that it should be left to states'.

By saying that, he has supported North Carolina's horrible amendment. Besides his statement says "I'm not going to do anything".

I'm just frustrated because this 'issue' is really something that we should have passed over some time ago. So to have it be some major milestone that a president actually came out and said "I personally support same-sex marriage" is sad. It's just politics altogether.

Obama's view hasn't actually ever changed on this, BTW. He's been against laws banning same-sex marriage federally all along. So all this is is words, and I'm not satisfied, sorry. Nothing can ever justify leaving it to the states. States like mine will NEVER legalized same-sex marriage until the federal government comes into play.

 

[-ty-]

Obama doesn't want to come across like he is coercing the other states to adopt his views.

But in reality, his administration has been putting a tremendous amount of pressure on the Supreme Court to vote on accepting the California Proposition 8 Repeal. If the Supreme Court take the appeal and finds the law unconstitutional, it will apply to the states. Plus, I doubt that our current Congress would pass a same-sex marriage law! If a Republican voted for such a measure, he/she would have committed political suicide. For the most part, the Supreme Court has much less external pressure that forces their hand in their decision-making since they are not elected by constituents.

Right now the Proposition 8 case has been declared unconstitutional at the 9th Circuit Federal Appeals Court, that means, the next place it goes is the US Supreme Court! So it's possible that all gay marriage bans might be deemed unconstitutional by federal case law, thus all states would have to issue same-sex marriage license.

Also, I don't think anyone has weighed in on the global significance of the President views. It sends a direct message to Russia and India, that continue to be oppressive to the LGBT people of their countries. This, along with Hilary Clinton's work with foreign gay human rights, puts pressure on other countries to do the same.

 

[FreakyLocz14]

Obama doesn't want to come across like he is coercing the other states to adopt his views.

But in reality, his administration has been putting a tremendous amount of pressure on the Supreme Court to vote on accepting the California Proposition 8 Repeal. If the Supreme Court take the appeal and finds the law unconstitutional, it will apply to the states. Plus, I doubt that our current Congress would pass a same-sex marriage law! If a Republican voted for such a measure, he/she would have committed political suicide. For the most part, the Supreme Court has much less external pressure that forces their hand in their decision-making since they are not elected by constituents.

Right now the Proposition 8 case has been declared unconstitutional at the 9th Circuit Federal Appeals Court, that means, the next place it goes is the US Supreme Court! So it's possible that all gay marriage bans might be deemed unconstitutional by federal case law, thus all states would have to issue same-sex marriage license.

Prop 8 was only declared unconstitutional by a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit, meaning that the next step is an en banc hearing by the full 9th Circuit.

Also, I don't think anyone has weighed in on the global significance of the President views. It sends a direct message to Russia and India, that continue to be oppressive to the LGBT people of their countries. This, along with Hilary Clinton's work with foreign gay human rights, puts pressure on other countries to do the same.

The Supreme Court could very well uphold Prop 8, and possibly also apply that decision to the states. Them striking it down also won't necessarily affect other states.