President Obama/No Political Pandering: We are all born God´s Children--No to Sexual Orientation Discrimination

Barack Obama, President of The United States of America

"You know, I am not obviously — I don't profess to be an expert. This is a layperson's opinion. But I don't think it's a choice. I think that people are born with, you know, a certain makeup... We don't make determinations about who we love. And that's why I ink that discrimination based on sexual orientation is wrong."  President Barack Obama

¨This is seemingly a big deal, the President publicly supporting the idea that one is born gay. As a Constitutional scholar he certainly understands the legal consequence of such a statement (mainly that sexual orientation is immutable and should be treated like race or gender for equal protection purposes). As a politician, he appreciates the consequences of making such a statement. Knowing all that, he made a statement that we should be treated equally.

The real question is, so what?

There is a rift in the gay community, those who believe that the President is working hard on our behalf, and those that believe he hasn't done nearly enough. It's not easy having a friendly administration. The expectation of immediate results, of complete intolerance for any discrimination, sweeping reform and celebration in the streets is a nearly impossible one to meet. But shouldn't he be doing something other than making statements on MTV?

In my very humble opinion, what we have right now is a President who believes in democracy, and in the democratic process. And the democratic process rarely provides quick results. Despots provide quick results. Dictators provide quick results. George W. Bush ignored the democratic process in favor of implementing his every whim, stomping over the judicial and legislative branches in the process. And I, for one, despised him for that.

We all wish the President would sign an executive order killing DADT once and for all. We all await the day Congress kicks DOMA to the curb and passes ENDA. And those days will come. The steps already taken — LGBT folks working in the White House, legislation passed over the past year and a half — deserve attention and applause. For some, it's not enough. But to have a President, soon to be a Presidential candidate again, state that being gay is a legitimate part of a person, that we are all born God's children, and that discrimination based on sexual orientation is not an American sentiment should not be dismissed as empty political pandering.¨ read it all, HERE

· Thanks to Maia Spotts
· Thanks to Change.Org, sidebar
· Thanks to Gay Rights, sidebar