Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Press Secretary Gibbs Dodges Question on Obama’s Past Support for Gay Marriage

Video tapes and past press coverage can be a bitch for politicians who like to play games and waffle on past positions - if not totally back track on them. Barack Obama is a case in point when the issue involves same sex marriage. Back in the mid-1990's Obama went on record in support of gay marriage. Now he's "wrestling with the issue" which is simply another way of saying either he was lying in the past or that he's lying now. Obviously, our faux :fierce advocate" cannot have it both ways and his disingenuousness on the issue shows either a dismaying political cynicism or out right indifference to LGBT Americans except for when votes and the LGBT ATM are involved. Here are highlights from Chris Johnson's piece in the Washington Blade after Obama's mouth piece Robert Gibbs bobbed and weave to avoid answering questions on Obama's inconsistency:
*
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs today dodged a question about whether President Obama has “backtracked” from his earlier support of same-sex marriage. In 1996, while campaigning for an Illinois Senate seat, Obama indicated his support on a candidate questionnaire for the Windy City Times, writing, “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.”
*
Asked today about the questionnaire by the Washington Blade, Gibbs declined to address it directly.
*
In the 1996 questionnaire response, Obama unequivocally stated his support for same-sex marriage, which is different from his current position on the issue. His position since has been that marriage should be reserved for one man and one woman. Still, the president has suggested his position could “evolve” on the matter and said last month he’s “wrestling” with the idea of marriage rights for gay couples.

“Like a lot of people, I’m wrestling with this,” Obama said in an interview last month with The Advocate. “I’ve wrestled with the fact that marriage traditionally has had a different connotation. But I also have a lot of very close friends who are married gay or lesbian couples.”
*
A number of gay rights supporters have called on Obama to declare support for same-sex marriage during the State of the Union address. On Sunday, the New York Times published an editorial from gay political pundit and sex columnist Dan Savage, who urged the president to address marriage rights for gay couples during the speech.

No comments: