President Obama, “who is under mounting pressure to clarify his thinking on same-sex marriage after top aides publicly embraced it in recent days, will sit down for an interview with ABC News on Wednesday during which he is likely to discuss his ‘evolving’ views on the issue,” the New York Times reports. I find it hard to imagine that he will endorse gay marriage in this interview and at this time, but I could be wrong.
Why do I say that?
“Even as opinion polls show growing approval of same-sex marriage nationally, opposition remains strong in some battleground states, as North Carolina voted to ban gay marriage and Colorado Republicans killed a measure to approve such civil unions,” Bloomberg reports.
He is evolving and “leading from behind” because in many places the country is still evolving. In my opinion, the worst thing President Obama could do for equal rights in this country is to endorse gay marriage. Yes, I am serious. Equality can’t be a partisan issue. It can’t be an issue that people oppose just because Obama supports it, like so many other issues in our country.
The goal should be universal acceptance. We have come so far in the last twenty years and we will go far in the next twenty, as the bigoted older generations die off and as people see that the end of all humanity and civilization did not result from gays marrying in New York and California and Iowa and New Hampshire and Massachusetts and Maryland.
The overwhelming majority of my generation (mid to late 30’s) and the generations after me don’t give a frackin rat’s ass about homosexuality and gay marriage. We accept it as normal. So as those in the older generations who are bigoted die, opposition to gay marriage and equality drops. So patience.
Yes, last night was gut wrenching and a little soul crushing in North Carolina. But look down the long road.