Obama Needs to Take Gay Marriage Stance

They threatened to move without him

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama went ahead with a plan to repeal “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” only because Congress dragged him into it kicking and screaming. Lawmakers, particularly Nancy Pelosi and Carl Levin, threatened to push ahead without Obama, and he reluctantly struck a deal. “Levin made it clear that the train was leaving the station,” the leader of a gay advocacy group tells Talking Points Memo . “The White House not only was not conducting, they weren't even on board.” More»

White House takes comedians more seriously, Harwood says

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama isn’t exactly quaking in his boots over the gay rights protesters that marched on Washington yesterday. The administration views the advocates as “part of the Internet left fringe,” CNBC correspondent John Harwood said on NBC last night. “One adviser told me, ‘those bloggers need to take off the pajamas, get dressed, and realize that governing a closely-divided country is complicated and difficult.” More»

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama has done next to nothing for gay and lesbian Americans since coming to power, but liberals keep insisting that he's a closet supporter of same-sex marriage and open military service. That's ridiculous, writes James Kirchick in the Washington Post, who sees no reason to assume Obama will act. "Whatever he 'really' thinks," he writes, "Obama's stance on gay marriage is virtually indistinguishable from that of John McCain." More»

President vows to repeal DOMA, open military to all

(NEWSER) - President Obama turned on the charm at a reception yesterday for gay, lesbian, and transgender activists at the White House, where he tried to dispel worries he was dragging his feet on campaign promises. "I think you guys will have pretty good feelings about the Obama administration" by the time it's over, he said to applause. As the Washington Post reports, many advocates were happy for the recognition, on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, but still angry at perceived slights. More»

Charles Krauthammer: If it's a civil right, how can he let states deny it?

(NEWSER) - Charles Krauthammer sees a "howling contradiction" in President Obama's new position on gay marriage. It's one thing to have "empathy" for the cause, he writes in the Washington Post , to feel badly for gay friends and acquaintances who can't legally marry. It's quite another to call it the next logical step in the civil rights battle, as the president did. If gay marriage is, in fact, a civil right, how can Obama abide any state denying it? More»