First and foremost, the LGBT struggle is one of the great civil rights movement of our times. Given that, quite honestly, there is simply no logical personal or political reason for President Obama to be against marriage equality. At this stage there can only be two conclusions: that he is a political coward or that he does indeed hold prejudice against LGBT citizens. Nothing else fits at this stage. No one can make any more excuses and no one can justify his position any longer. Looking at the facts, the statistics, the political reality and at the President's current position one can only say "Shame on you, Mr. President. Shame on you."
This weekend two factors forced me to focus on his lack of leadership on this issue. One was a brilliant article in the New Republic by Richard Just entitled simply "Disgrace" and the other was a chart published in The New York Times showing the massive change in support across the country for marriage equality. Combine that with a recent CNN poll that showed 52% of Americans believe now that marriage equality is a Constitutional Right and you see how ridiculous his position has become before the public.
The President should look to his fellow Democrats for courage. Overwhelmingly, Democrats now support marriage equality. If you look at the New York Times Marriage Chart you will see a state by state breakdown on the increasing support for parity. Look at the entire chart and you will see states like West Virginia support for marriage equality has grown in 15 years from 21% to 41%. Seventeen states now support marriage equality by greater than 50%! Another 13 states support it with margins of greater than 40% with most of those above 45%! Of the remaining 20 states, Obama only carried 2 of those states and 12 of those 20 are in the deep South or border states. Can the political facts be any clearer?
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