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"I'm here and want to have fun!" had an inherent political edge to it when the right to be openly gay or transgender was still being litigated in courts of both law and public opinion. Obama said he had “hesitated” on gay marriage because of religious traditions and “because I thought civil unions would be sufficient, that that was something that would give people hospital visitation rights and other elements that we take for granted.Gay pride parades are generally celebratory affairs, but they've also almost always had a political side too. “I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbours when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point 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,” he said.
Mitt Romney, the near-certain Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts governor, said Wednesday he opposes both same-sex marriages and civil unions for gay and lesbian couples. Some Democrats fear the president could lose that swing state and others - like Virginia and Ohio - because of his new-found support for gay marriage. Obama carried North Carolina, typically a Republican stronghold, in the 2008 election. The latest state to pass a ban on same-sex marriage was North Carolina, which on Tuesday voted 61% in favour of a constitutional amendment limiting the institution to opposite-sex couples. Same-sex marriages are legal in six states and the District of Columbia, but 30 other states have passed measures defining marriage as a legal union between a man and a woman. Obama’s declaration is certain to help the incumbent president raise money in the gay and lesbian community - a major source of fundraising for his campaign - but it also risks alienating voters in some important constituencies, including among evangelical African Americans and culturally conservative Democrats.Īmong those who immediately cheered Obama’s statement was Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York, who called it a “major turning point in the history of American civil rights.”īloomberg added that “no American president has ever supported a major expansion of civil rights that has not ultimately been adopted by the American people - and I have no doubt that this will be no exception.”Ĭanada legalized gay marriage in 2005 with passage of the Civil Marriage Act, but the U.S.
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White House aides insist Biden’s statement was not by design and, rather than serve to prepare public opinion ahead of Obama’s own announcement, put the president in something of a political jam. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.