LGBTQ news and entertainment
Four time Tony Award winning singer and actress Audra McDonald tells why she supports President Obama’s announcement of his support for the freedom to marry.
Audra is nominated for a Tony for her role in the Broadway smash “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess.”
A new CBS News/New York Times poll shows that 62 percent of Americans support recognizing same-sex relationships via either full marriage equality or civil unions. That number jumped to 70 percent when asked of those aged 18-44 across parties. Independent voters back marriage equality and civil unions by a robust 62 percent.
A Gallup poll released late last week also showed that a considerable majority of independents strongly backed President Obama’s support for marriage equality.
Despite the growing public support for marriage equality, Mitt Romney continues to buck the will of the majority of Americans – supporting neither marriage equality nor civil unions. That position puts him further to the right on LGBT equality than even former President George W. Bush, who did support civil unions.
Learn more about Mitt Romney’s anti-LGBT positions.
Andrew Sullivan, whose Newsweek article “The First Gay President” is getting a lot of attention as much for its text as its cover image, appeared on The Chris Matthews Show on Sunday and offered an emotional account of what Obama’s announcement meant to him.
Said Sullivan:
It’s hugely important and to tell you the truth, I didn’t realize how important it would be until it happened. Beforehand, I was kind of steeled. I was like, ‘I don’t care, he’s going to disappoint us again.’ And then I sat down and watched our president tell me that I am his equal, that I’m no longer outside, I’m fully part of this family and to hear the president who is in some ways a father figure speak to that, the tears came down like with many people in our families, to be included.
I never understood the power of a president’s words until that day, really. I thought, all that matters is the states and the Congress and the Defense of Marriage Act and I had all this in my head and suddenly this man saying, ‘I’m with you, I get it, you’re like me, I’m like you, there is nothing between us, we are the same people and we are equal human beings and I want to treat you the way you treat me.’ That — that was overwhelming. That’s all I can say. I was at a loss for words.
(source)
From Gallup: A majority of Americans, 60%, say President Barack Obama’s newly announced support for same-sex marriage will make no difference to their vote. Twice as many say it will make them less likely to vote for Obama as say more likely, though roughly half of the “less likely” group are Republicans who probably would not support Obama anyway.
• 13% say the President’s support for marriage equality makes them more likely to vote for him
• 26% say the President’s support for marriage equality makes them less likely to vote for him
• 60% say he President’s support for marriage equality makes no difference in how they plan to vote
The results are based on a May 10 USA Today/Gallup poll conducted in response to Obama’s May 9 announcement that he supports legalizing gay marriage. Obama is the first president to publicly support gay marriage while in office.
The poll finds 51% of Americans approving of his position, essentially matching the 50% of Americans who support gay marriage in general, and similar to his 49% overall job approval rating.
Campaign ad contrasting the differences between President Obama and Mitt Romney on the issue of same-sex marriage rights.
President Obama today announced that he now supports same-sex marriage, reversing his longstanding opposition amid growing pressure from the Democratic base and even his own vice president.
In an interview with ABC News’ Robin Roberts, the president described his thought process as an “evolution” that led him to this place, based on conversations with his own staff members, openly gay and lesbian service members, and conversations with his wife and own daughters.
OBAMA: 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 in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, 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, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are 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 same sex couples should be able to get married.
His endorsement comes less than a week after Vice President Joe Biden embraced the issue during an appearance on Meet The Press and a day after North Carolina banned marriage equality and civil unions in its state constitution.
Obama’s remarks today bring him full circle to his position in 1996, when he was running for the Illinois state Senate. In response to a questionnaire from Chicago’s Outlines gay newspaper, he proclaimed, “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.”
(via ThinkProgress)
On MSNBC today, in reference to the President’s upcoming interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts, Mark Halperin of TIME Magazine said he expects the President to complete his “evolution” on gay marriage today.
“Every expectation that we will, within the next hour, be in a different world, where we will have a President of the United States who supports the legalization of gay marriage,” Mark Halperin said this afternoon during an appearance on MSNBC. “The Vice President, I think, forced his hand. But even before the Vice President spoke on Meet The Press in favor of gay marriage, the President was headed in this direction,” he added.
Halperin also dissected the many ways – obvious and not so obvious – this political course could help the President in the upcoming election: “If Republicans go after this hard — now, they’ll do it in a micro targeting way if the president changes his position. If Mitt Romney tries to make this a big issue, it takes them off the economy. If this election is fought not on the economy, that’s better for the President, and I think Republicans will see that. I don’t think this will be a huge issue in the election.”
Stay tuned to hear exactly what the President has to say..
I worried about this exact same scenario for a long time.
Thankfully Michael and I are legally married AND we’ve done all the legal paperwork to cover ourselves.
But this actually happens folks. I don’t really understand how Tom Bridegroom’s family could act so callously, but it happens. And this is why marriage equality is necessary.
If you think you may not understand the issue, please read and talk about it so you can form your own independent view of the issue.
Every time we see gay rights put to a vote of the heterosexual majority, we are at risk of being made “less than.”
All Americans, all people, should have the same rights as issued by a civil government.
Enough lecturing. Watch the video, please.