C and I watched the VP debate very closely last night, and while I was mostly impressed by Joe Biden, his statement about gay marriage really bothered me. To be honest, I hadn't done much research on Obama and Biden's stand on this issue. I did a little research today, and here is what I've learned. Obaman and Biden support civil union, not gay marriage. He is against Proposition 8 in California, the proposed legislation that would define marriage as between one man and one woman. In an interview with the Chigao Tribune Obama said "I'm a Christian. And so, although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do believe that tradition, and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman."
He did vote against a Federal Marriage Amendment and opposed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. And he has also said that he would support allowing individual state decide the issue. I have a serious, serious problem with that last statement, and here's allowing individual states to legislate issues like this hasn't worked well in the past. After all slavery was determined by individual states, and we all know how well that practice worked out for the U.S.
Finally, here is a clip of an interview Obama gave at the most Human Rights Campaign meeting.
I have to say this really, really bothers me.
2 comments:
Maybe ˆ'm being naive, but isn't Obama (in the clip) saying that he'd like the government to approve civil gay marriage, but that religions have to make their own decisions regarding religious ceremonies? Given the separation of church and state, that's to be expected.
(And I realize that the church/state issue is complicated by his support of faith-based orgs, but I'm too seep-deprived to continue the train of thought... Any takers?)
He is saying that he supports civil unions, which are, technically, not the same as marriages. But you're right: his support of faith-based orgs makes his statements regarding the separation of church and state hypocritical. To me, this feels like he is being political--trying to hang on to the relatively small number of democrats who don't support gay marriage.
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