Historic Presidency Makes Step Forward

In case you have been living in a shell this past week, here’s what you missed: both President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden came out in the media this week in favor of same-sex marriage. This is historic as this is the first presidency in U.S. history to openly affirm LGBT individual’s rights to marry.

This comes as good news for LGBT rights advocates as the Obama administration has thus far had a bumpy roller coaster ride of a presidential term. 

They were able to pass the Matthew Shepard Act in 2010 finally recognizing violence against LGBT individuals as a hate crime. And they successfully repealed ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ in 2010 allowing gays and lesbians to openly serve in the military. All of this was bolstered by marriage equality being legalized in Connecticut in 2008; Iowa, Vermont, and New Hampshire in 2009; Washington D.C. in 2010; and New York in 2011. 

(The California constitutional amendment, Proposition 8—which prohibited marriage equality after the state’s Supreme Court had previously supported it in 2008—is still waiting to be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court, after the U.S. District Court decided in 2010 that Prop. 8 was unconstitutional. The state congresses of Washington and Maryland both passed laws legalizing same-sex marriages early in 2012, but are both subject to possible referendums to bring the laws to voter approval. And a similar law legalizing same-sex marriage that was passed in early 2012 by the New Jersey congress was later vetoed by Gov. Chris Christie, sending it to voter approval).

Yet somehow, the Obama administration has been unable to repeal the ‘Defense of Marriage Act’ (DOMA), and has been unable to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (which would have prohibited discrimination in hiring and employment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity by civilian, nonreligious employers with at least 15 employees). Furthermore, Obama has received backlash from the LGBT community for his lack of support for gay marriage—something he had promised to do during his 2008 election campaign.

But should we really be nagging Obama for these shortfalls? I mean, one could say that, all things considered, this is arguably the most progressive presidential term in expanding equal rights to LGBT individuals. Some would even tell us to be glad for what we do currently have in the United States (most other countries do not come anywhere close to rights and freedoms we are given).

By and large, I am not criticizing Obama for his apparent failures in granting equal rights—particularly with same-sex marriage. After all, I understand Obama has had several more important issues to worry about during this presidential term (i.e. war in the Middle East and a collapsing U.S. economy).

That being said, I hope these comments by Obama and Biden are not just another campaigning scheme to win us over from voting for Mitt Romney and whoever his running-mate will be—like I would ever do that anyways. I would be greatly disappointed in the new administration were they to slack off again in their second term. My sincerest hope is that if Obama is granted a second term he would actually continue his fight for LGBT rights and—dare I say?—guarantee us marriage equality. 

In closing, I think one of the best ways to drive a point home is through satirical humor. And amidst all of this buzz surrounding the White House this week, I think the Onion had a brilliant article titled "Future U.S. History Students: 'It's Pretty Embarrassing How Long You Guys Took To Legalize Gay Marriage." Check it out if you haven't!