"Obama has proved himself repeatedly to be a very tolerant, very rational-sounding sort of bigot. He is far too careful and measured a man to say anything [like Warren did] about body parts fitting together or marriage being reserved for the nonpedophilic, but all the same, he opposes equality for gay people when it comes to the basic recognition of their relationships. He did throughout his campaign, one that featured appearances by Donnie McClurkin, a Christian entertainer who preaches that homosexuals can become heterosexuals.
"Obama reminds me a little bit of Richard Russell Jr., the longtime Senator from Georgia who â as historian Robert Caro has noted â cultivated a reputation as a thoughtful, tolerant politician even as he defended inequality and segregation for decades. Obama gave a wonderfully Russellian defense of Warren on Thursday at a press conference. Americans, he said, need to "come together" even when they disagree on social issues. "That dialogue is part of what my campaign is all about," he said. Russell would often use the same tactic to deflect criticism of his civil rights record. It was a distraction, Russell said, from the important business of the day uniting all Americans. Obama also said today that he is a "fierce advocate for equality" for gays, which is â given his opposition to equal marriage rights â simply a lie. It recalls the time Russell said, "I'm as interested in the Negro people of my state as anyone in the Senate. I love them."
"Many gays I know gave money to Obama, which mystified me. The favored explanation was that he doesn't "really" believe gays shouldn't be allowed to marry; he just has to say that in order to win. People seemed to feel that once he had won, he would find a way â in his contemplative style â to help convince Americans that gay people really do deserve basic equality. Instead, he has found a way to insult gay people deeply.
"In California, some gay activists are planning to put marriage on the 2010 ballot so that Proposition 8 â which (thanks partly to Warren's support) passed last month, banning marriage equality in the state â can be undone. Gays will need to reach older, religious, and African-American voters in order to overturn Prop. 8 (those three groups all voted disproportionately for it). If gays hoped that President Obama would help, they may want to reconsider.
"The only piece of good news is that Obama loves to raise money, and he won't want significant gay donors to stop organizing fundraisers for him. Having picked Warren to pray at the Inauguration and Republican Robert Gates to stay on at the Department of Defense (where Gates will likely continue the policy of investigating gay service members â a policy he has the legal power to end with the stroke of a pen), Obama will now have to do something nice for the gays."
John Cloud, TIME magazine
Thursday, Dec. 18, 2008
