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Jun 23, 2011

Obama the Opportunistic Weasel!

Marriage equality. It is the next civil right to be won in America. It will be won, and we will start an inexorable march toward equality without regard to sexual orientation. For far too long, homosexuals have been forced to live like second-class citizens, much like blacks were, and in some places, still are, but it will begin to end.

So what exactly are these homosexuals fighting for, when they want the right to marriage? Well, nothing more than what is offered to heterosexuals: the 1138 or so rights that are conferred automatically by the federal government.

When?

At one point I was optimistic it'd happen within my lifetime, but that changed after I saw a supposedly liberal California actually vote to deny homosexuals that. By a simple majority. In a state that requires a two-thirds majority to raise taxes or fees! The disappointing part of that was the way the blacks voted. Overwhelmingly against granting an oppressed minority the same rights as heterosexuals. That was unfathomable to me. Firstly, that we we were actually voting to deny or grant someone rights, and secondly, that a long oppressed minority who had gone through the trials and tribulations of their own were voting to deny that to
someone else!

And Obama? His position was as follows:
I’ve stated my opposition to this. I think Prop 8 is unnecessary. I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage. But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that’s not what America’s about. Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don’t contract them.
Weasel!

If you favor liberty for all, but are opposed to Prop 8, that is like being in favor of equality for blacks but opposing the Civil Rights Act.

Then he became President. Had that two-faced Warren deliver the invocation. Yes, that homophobe.

So when? Not in my lifetime, I said, at that point.

Months passed, there were rumblings from the gay community about DOMA and DADT. Obama's team was unmoved, they had more pressing matters to even make a statement.

But something happened over that time. The fundagelicals were so focused on directing their bigotry against Obama, his birth certificate, his skin color, the ACA, the continuing economic malaise, Muslims, Alaska Palin, Minnesota Palin, Beck, guns, and already low taxes, that they forgot to hate the gays.

The polls changed, and a significant majority of the population voiced support for repealing DADT. And Obama jumped on the opportunity. Fresh from a stinging defeat at the polling booth, he "boldly" put the DADT repeal to a vote. Opportunistic politicians followed suit. DADT was repealed.

Wow! Congress and Obama did what only 80% of the people wanted. Gutsy!

OK, now when will marriage equality become real? I started thinking 2012. Obama's got this, and DOMA is to be history soon. Hey, he issued an edict stating that his DOJ will not be defending DOMA anymore. Even announced that his views are "evolving".

So where's the public statement that recanted his Prop 8 weaseldom? Rumors started circulating that he'll do so shortly. Perhaps this week.

Nope, didn't happen this week. At a LGBT rally in New York, where they are trying to pass a marriage equality bill, when confronted directly on the specific issue of marriage equality, the weasel offered:
And I believed that discrimination because of somebody’s sexual orientation or gender identity ran counter to who we are as a people. It’s a violation of the basic tenets on which this nation was founded. I believe that gay couples deserve the same human rights as every other couple in this country.
OK, what about marriage, you weasel?
Right now, I understand, there is a little debate going on here in New York, under the leadership of Governor Cuomo, with the support of Democrats and Republicans, New York is doing exactly what democracies are supposed to do. There is debate and deliberation about what it means here in New York to treat people fairly in the eyes of the law. That is the power of our democratic system. It is not always pretty there are setbacks there are frustrations. But in grappling with tough and at time emotional issues in the legislatures and the courts and the ballot box and, yes, around the dinner table and the office hallways -- sometimes even in the Oval Office -- slowly but surely we find a way forward. That is how we will achieve change that is lasting. Change that just a few years ago would have seemed impossible.
Spineless weasel!
With your help, if you keep up the fight, if you will devote your time and your energies to this campaign one more time, I promise you we will write another chapter in that story. We are going to lead a new generation to a brighter future, and I will be standing there right there with you.
Opportunistic weasel!  They'll work, fight, suffer, and he'll take the credit.

The polls on this are only slightly in favor: 53% approve. Not enough for the weasel to stake any political capital on it.

So when? I am guessing 2018 at the latest. The bigotry shall be made illegal. It may take a couple more generations after that to get to the point where homosexuals enjoy the same acceptance as blacks do today. If it doesn't, remember that Obama had it in his sights to dare to effect the change and he refrained.

When the discrimination ends, note that the real heroes would have been members of the LGBT community, who suffered, fought, and ended it.

Not Obama. He was just there for the cake. Yes, I get it, "He is better than Bush or even Clinton!" He is still a weasel who did little to help the LGBT community except and only when someone else made it politically favorable.

The DADT repeal will go down as one of his accomplishments, and I have credited him with that in the past. I now see that it was misplaced. The DADT repeal simply happened on his watch, he had little to do with it.

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