It’s About Time

In my last post, I hinted that Obama should do the right thing, and come out for marriage equality, but I allowed that since he was trying to get elected, I’d understand if he waited until the election is over.

Well, we didn’t have to wait.

“But I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors, when I think about members of my own staff who are incredibly committed, monogamous, 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 now that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is gone because they’re 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 that same sex couples should be able to get married.”

It’s about time, and none too soon after the debacle in North Carolina yesterday. It looks like he sent Joe Biden out on Sunday to float a trial balloon, to see what the response was.

It must have been positive.

I could be a cynic and suppose that he also waited for polls to show that the majority of Americans favor gay marriage, which they seem to do by a narrow margin, or perhaps he waited to see how close the margins were in the North Carolina Amendment One vote (they were closer than they have been in the past, in other Bible Belt States – 61-39%). OK, even if the cynical take is true, it’s still about time. It’s about time that we apply some reason and humanity to this issue, and stop kow-towing to the loud and pernicious fundamentalist minority.

Get it behind us so we can actually deal with issues that affect the majority of this country, like jobs, and taxes, and stupid wars, and our crumbling infrastructure. Stop distracting us with silly cultural issues that have no place in Presidential elections or our legislatures.