You’re citing what Barney Frank believes, Knight.

During the campaign Obama said he was not in favor of gay marriage. I don’t have the full link, but the question came up on twitter a week or so ago & I went looking then for something to back up my memory – found many contemporaneous to the campaign. What I posted to twitter was:

Nov. 2, 2008, Obama told MTV he believes marriage is “between a man & a woman” & that he is “not in favor of gay marriage.” Source: ABC News

No worries Irish Girl, you’ve always been kind to me. (Btw, I dont mind if you disagree with me… its the constant feeling that I’m back in the 8th grade that bothers me… which is really an internet problem, more than a Goddamn Awesome Blog problem.)

But here ya go, strait from the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/us/politics/19marriage.html

I believe that President Obama is actually FOR gay marraige and doesnt believe in this seperate but equal crap anymore than I do. I think he made a political calculation that he could not come out for it when running in 2008, in the same way most democrats do not feel they cant come out against the death penalty. I think that President Obama is a solid B+ president who deserves to be praised on a great many things. I also think that there are times, such as his stance on gay marraige, that he is wrong and when he is wrong, we have a duty to say so…. politiely, constructively and in proportion to how wrong he is.

100% of what you said.

And if they sulk and stay home next year we’ll have a Republican President and a Republican Senate Majority Leader. And then we can all kiss all of the LGBT achievements done by Obama goodbye.

Of course, there will be some huffing about, “We’re going to get stuff done!!” but if the Repubs dominate everything, I seriously doubt that any movement in the direction of more LGBT rights will be possible.

Seriously….why do some of us INSIST on shooting ourselves in the foot instead of aiming at the right target? Why?

With your permission, I’ll be re-posting this one. Thanks.

….Or maybe they have to remember–“Deeds, not words.”

(Then again, I’d take a guess that most of ’em have forgotten the advertising for or the film MEGAFORCE…)

But seriously, though…is Cooper blind? I mean, he’s SUPPOSED to be a journalist, right? He can just look up what the President has actually done.

But noooooo….he has to pull this sh*t.

I agree–F*@K ‘EM.

TDK, I don’t think so. I remember him saying during the campaign that he wasn’t. Can you cite your sources? I’m not trying to be offensive, I’m truly curious.

Huh. I was under the impression that President Obama was on the record as being for gay marraige as far back as 1996. I must have been misinformed.

Rarely if ever.

yeah – the flip-flopping on gay marriage, unless Obama is suddenly in favor of it. There is no question about Obama’s feelings towards gay marriage – he’s never hidden them nor has he hidden his belief that gay people are entitled to equal rights and, indeed, has done much to ensure those rights. Perhaps Cooper should have done a simple google search before implying that Obama ever said anything different

Instead, he fought. He stopped defending DOMA and committed to repealing it, which is all he can do under the law. He repealed DADT and sent military leader to Capitol Hill to ensure that he got it repealed. He signed the Matthew Shepard hate crimes bill, signed the HIV treatment act, signed the UN declaration on sexual orientation, lifted the HIV entry ban, made passports easier for same-sex partners to get, gave $13 million to an LGBT program for kids in foster care, set up a national HIV strategy, gave guidance to 20,000 education institutions to stop bullying, and set up anti-bullying hotline.

Obama outraged LGBT opponents with his efforts within the federal government; ensuring fairer treatment for gays on benefits, jobs, census rules, visitation rights, housing and HUD grants, tenant rights, domestic violence, the Family and Medical Leave Act, long-term care under Medicaid, deporation rules, and the right to form Gay-Straight Student Alliances in schools. Obama changed the culture of the federal government; he appointed liberal Supreme Court Justices, put an equality advocate on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, and sent senior officials out to fight for LGBT rights.

He defied LGBT opponents again in his unceasing effort to get out the message of equality. He fought for LGBT rights in speech after speech after speech, sent an anti-bullying message to 8 million people on the net, gave presidential medals of freedom to Harvey Milk and Billie Jean King, invited the shunned high school prom student to the White House, and put gays in PSAs for the census.

He overcame Republican efforts to block accreditation of the UN LGBT commission, and he helped change the rules so that the UN no longer condones killing gays.

Over and over he made history in the fight for LGBT rights: the first national study on housing discrimination against gays, first White House LGBT pride month celebration, first transgender DNC member, first administration to testify in favor of ENDA, first openly transgender administration officials, first transgender policy meeting, first anti-bullying summit, first anti-bullying website.

What issue has Obama done more to fight for, than gay rights? If he had fought as hard for health reform as he did for gays, we’d have the public option; if he had fought as hard for a bigger stimulus, we’d have more jobs.

It is time for the unrealistic LGBT whiners to stop weakening the president and start strengthening his position, so he can fight for them more effectively. It is because they sulked and stayed home in 2010 that we have a Republican Speaker.