President Barack Obama reaffirmed his campaign pledge to end the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military in a speech Saturday, but offered no timetable or specifics for acting on that promise.
He acknowledged to a cheering crowd that some policy changes he promised on the campaign trail are not coming as quickly as they expected.
[…]
Obama also called on Congress to repeal the Defense Of Marriage Act, which limits how state, local and federal bodies can recognize partnerships and determine benefits. He also called for a law to extend benefits to domestic partners.He expressed strong support for the Human Rights Campaign agenda – ending discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people – but stopped short of laying out a detailed plan for how to get there.
“My expectation is that when you look back on these years you will look back and see a time when we put a stop against discrimination … whether in the office or the battlefield,” Obama said.
Another speech by Obama. *Yawn*.
When is he going to get around to, you know, actually do stuff, as opposed to speaking and appearing on talk shows?
More bullshit campaign talk. Didn’t he say he’d close gitmo too? Wait, that’s still open.
Actually, he hasn’t done anything he said he was going to do.
Gov’t should have nothing to do with marriage.
Gays should be allowed to enter into property-sharing/caretaker contracts just like straights do. Of course, you’d have to eliminate tax breaks for “married” couples.
Obama wants more gays in the military because he’s running out of soldiers to send into war.
Armies should be sexually homogeneous. This includes an army composed entirely of straight women or gay men.
Obama is great at talk. That’s all he does, talk.
aND YOU CAN GET 300 PEOPLE to AGREE with you?
ALL of you.
CAN you get 300+ people to AGREE with you, WITHOUT a bunch of BS being thrown around..
Why are Male/female couples so Afraid of Gays??
Jealousy??
The BIBLE??
Just BECAUSE??
Are the women afraid because they WONT have a decent selection for Husband??
ANd WHY in hell are the GUYS upset?? It leave more Available GIRLS..
You watch. This speech practically insures a one-term President.
The majority of Americans oppose gay marriage, specially those Americans likely to vote.
Now if you add up all the others he has insulted this past year alone, such as Postal Workers, Police, Sheriffs, everyone in the military, and the like, along with the mantra that whoever disagrees with him is a racist, who’s left to vote for him??
Oh wait, I know who will vote for him!
The extreme-left gay activists! But is that enough to bring home an election?
Or is it just enough to piss off everyone else?
One last thought:
Remember this?
ABB (Anyone But Bush):
THE NEW MANTRA!
ABB (Anyone But Barrack)!
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
His “Gay Speech”?…I thought ALL of his speeches were totally gay! HAR!
—but offered no timetable or specifics for acting on that promise.—
Oooh, there’s a shock…I won’t hold my breath.
How can anyone be against efforts to reduce discrimination against gays? It is really the last frontier of civil rights.
aH_YEA..
Yes I know, that everyone will blame WHATEVER on this pres..
its the THINKERS that may get some knowledge..
Unfortunately the typical thinker is outvoted by the typical voter 10 to 1.
I’m sure before Loving v. Virginia, the majority of US citizens were against different pigmented people marrying as well.
And most likely there were a majority that didn’t like it afterwards and some still don’t today.
But we can’t all live like we are back in the 50s forever.
Eventually a ruling will come down and it will change slowly overtime.
Just like the majority came to accept divorce, blood transfusions and In-vitro fertilisation.
You can’t hold back the tide.
Cursor_
# 15 Alfred1
This is not about sodomy in the streets. I thought you once said that you did not oppose civil rights for gay people. The middle path is usually the best.
P.S. Is “Alfred1” the real (and former) “Alfred”.
Alfred1, you are a plain and simple bigot.
There is already plenty of banned behavior in the military. Like Ron Paul says, it doesn’t matter if you are gay or straight if you engage in banned behavior then you should be punished.
Individual liberty must be preserved above all else.
The anti-gay policy has resulted in thousands of lesbians and homosexuals being forced out of the military with no tangible benefit as a result.
What a surprise, another media driven worship service for the Obamanation.
Just like his past demonic sermons this topic is right up Obama’s alley. A walkin’, talkin’ rectum deceptively pushing for civil rights when it’s easy to see that special rights for perverts is the agenda.
What a world… What’s bad is good and what’s good is bad.
#3, Gov’t should have nothing to do with marriage.
Gays should be allowed to enter into property-sharing/caretaker contracts just like straights do.
And THIS is the problem. If government wasn’t in the looting business, they would have no say how people entered into their own contracts. But as long as there is a legal definition of marriage (in effect, a state-mandated arrangement), the gays are not going to win this fight anytime soon.
Of course, you’d have to eliminate tax breaks for “married” couples.
Which is something else people don’t realize. And it just isn’t the tax breaks, but all of the government benefits as well. This is going to put even more pressure on the bankrupt social security system and its brethren.
What an interesting hole we’ve dug for ourselves.
I prefer the pro-gay policy that bans gays from military service:
http://theonion.com/content/video/gays_too_precious_to_risk_in
Being straight, its been easy for me to be somewhat suspect of the more controversial positions the gays have taken regarding marriage and military service and constitutional amendments and what not. After all, in the main, its not the “status” of being gay that under review but rather the voluntary “action” that flows therefrom. Some will say that is the same thing, but it isn’t. Close, yes, but not the same thing.
So, sitting on the fence, I’ve been pulled over to the “pro gay” position by two forces:
1. The notion that the entire direction of human liberty/satisfaction/worth/accomplishment has been in the direction of recognizing “more rights” not restricting them.
2. The all too often silly arguments made against gay rights by those against them. Who wants to align themselves with those who would argue “its not natural?”
So, I’m for what Obama will evidently say. I further hope that Obama will see the pattern this issue establishes: not enough action. I don’t think this is a function of Obama being extremely clever or manipulative or political within our system. I think it is his “conservatism.” I think he is captured and being captured too much by the status quo and not really wanting to change too much because of I don’t know why. “If we were starting from scratch …..” BUT NO ONE EVER DOES. Put me on the left of Obama and pushing for change.
Seriously? Americans are arguing about this? Let me say this in the kindest possible way: America, get a life.
#24–qb==quit being a poser. America: land of the flat earth society, anti-abortion, anti-drug, anti-prostitution, anti-welfare, anti-Darwin, anti-science===and on and on the antediluvian list goes.
We are but coasting downhill from accidents of history and location. Captured by minority loons we are.
Seriously, this caught me off guard. I know you guys are tying yourself in knots over same sex marriage but I didn’t know this nonsense was still going on. Wow.
It just occurred to me that Obama must be living in his own private world.
It’s a given that Obama needs to prepare for a long, hard, uphill fight to fulfill the promise of this speech.
Isn’t he already in a long, hard, uphill fight, called HealthCare Reform??
Why take on Gay rights now? Why not concentrate all his energy on HealthCare and get it passed first?
Why this distraction?
Maybe that’s it. Maybe it IS a distraction to take our gaze off how badly HealthCare reform is going.
#27–Ah_Yea said==”It just occurred to me that Obama must be living in his own private world.” /// Heh, heh. and who among us doesn’t?
Obama is for gay rights but under his own health care regulation, assuming it passes, gays with AIDS will have a high chance of not being treated because it’s too expensive to treat. How’s that for being pro gay!
Btw, being anti gay marriage isn’t the same as being against gays. People confuse the the fact that gays not being able to marry doesn’t equate to out lawing homosexuality or denying gays to love each other (or many if you are the bath house type of homosexual). There are legal remedies for gays to love each other without having a piece of paper and enjoy the same rights as married folks. The issue of gay marriage is only one of marketing to further legitimize a behavior that isn’t legitimate or biologically feasible.
#29–Warden==I just want all the good blog readers to know that I did not pay you to demonstrate my post #23. Anyone on the fence or hesitant to change laws giving gays more rights should be encouraged to do so by posts like yours.
BTW, and secondary, what source do you get your “no treatment for aids?”–or is it just no treatment for gays with aids? I’m curious how Americans will be denied this long term care because of expense when the USA, by action from Bush, is providing this care for free through much of Africa.
We will all wait for a link, or from a description of the Colt 45 induced stupor you drew this from.
qb—–starting to get the picture?
Yes bobbo, I’m flabbergasted.
I knew there were lots of people who are like Dodd or Alfred1 but Warden is a jaw dropper.
First paragraph: beware gay people of the red menace who kill you if you let them.
Second paragraph: we will protect from such horrors as long as you stay in your Warsaw ghetto.
qb–welcome to the republican base/LIEBERTARIAN wing nut fringe in USA politics that many commentators have said won Bush the election in 2004 if not 2000 as well.
The Repugs orchestrated anti-gay legislation to be introduced in certain key borderline states in order to bring out the conservative, single issue, anti-gay vote. While these good christian deep thinkers were in the voting booth, they put their mark next to the Born Again Bush to boot.
You failed to notice what drives American Politics???????? Why that would be like me not knowing there are kangeroos in Oz, or sheep in New Zealand? ((If I got that wrong, fill in your own pop culture reference—its just that plain.))