Posted by
TheChair on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 1:09:02 AM
I decided to search Obama's own website to prove my constant point that a vote for him will redefine marriage down for the entire country. Here's some of what I found.
From
a speech by Michelle Obama on 6/26/08:
And, a world where our federal laws don't discriminate against same-sex relationships, including equal treatment for any relationship recognized under state law. [Translation: if Massachusetts or California or any other state recognizes same-sex marriage, the federal government must also. Of course, since 3 states now have legalized gay marriage, Obama believes the federal government must recognize those marriages federally.]
A world that recognizes that equality in relationship, family, and adoption rights is not some abstract principle; it's about whether millions of LGBT Americans can finally live lives marked by dignity and freedom. Barack has made crystal clear his commitment to ensuring full equality for LGBT couples. ["Full" means if anybody has marriage, gays must also be entitled to it.]
That is why he supports robust civil unions. [Only if a state doesn't have civil unions, yet. For those that do, he supports liberalizing marriage law even further.] That is why he has said that the federal government should not stand in the way of states that want to decide for themselves how best to pursue equality for gay and lesbian couples -- whether that means a domestic partnership, a civil union, or a civil marriage. [Notice she doesn't say that states can decide for themselves how to define marriage, only how best to pursue equality for gay and lesbian couples. It is a one-way ratchet effect for Obama. States can only liberalize marriage toward gays, not away from them. This is why he opposes California's Proposition 8 and other, similar initiatives in Arizona and Florida, but let Michelle Obama tell you in her own words...]
And that is why he opposes all divisive and discriminatory constitutional amendments – whether it's a proposed amendment to the California and Florida Constitutions or the U.S. Constitution. Because the world as it should be rejects discrimination. [See? Barak Obama supports "robust civil unions" and everything else states do to liberalize marriage even further--marriage--but he OPPOSES trimming, curbing, modifying, or restricting marriage in any way concerning homosexual couples.]
The positions in this recent speech flatly contradict
what Obama was saying only a year earlier at a town hall before he won the primary. "When a woman in the audience asked about his positions on abortion and gay marriage, Obama said he's pro-choice and favors civil unions, though not gay marriage. He said religious denominations, not states, should decide whether to recognize gay marriages."
But here is
Obama's ostensibly complete bullet-point statement of his position on LGBT issues. The central point he hopes that swing voters will latch onto is this the first part of this paragraph:
Support Full Civil Unions and Federal Rights for LGBT Couples. Barack Obama supports full civil unions that give same-sex couples equal legal rights and privileges as married couples, including the right to assist their loved ones in times of emergency as well as equal health insurance, employment benefits, and property and adoption rights. Obama also believes we need to fully repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and other legally-recognized unions.
But note that Obama's support of civil unions are not restrictive... for him civil unions are a baseline. This allows him to say to crowds that he's for civil unions. And descriptively (not normatively) that marriage is between a man and a woman. But that he intends for gay unions to blossom into marriage is evident from the last part of the paragraph that advocates repealing the federal Defense of Marriage Act. That Act is our protection from the spread of gay marriage throughout the country by means of marriage jumpers getting married in Massachusetts or California and then returning home to force it on, say, Wyoming by court fiat.
If you have any doubt, the next paragraph should make it clear:
Oppose a Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage. Obama voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman and prevented judicial extension of marriage-like rights to same-sex or other unmarried couples.
Here he opposes (1) federally limiting marriage to a man and a woman, and (2) stopping judges from forcing same-sex marriage and polygamy on the People without their legislative consent. Some might argue that Obama opposed the amendment because it included both features, but based on my study of his other comments, I believe he would have voted against either provision alone.
I recently compared Obama's posture on gay marriage to President James Buchanan's position on the southern states seceding from the union. Buchanan thought secession was unlawful, but he also thought the president had no constitutional power to prevent it. I now realize the comparison was unfair to Buchanan.