comsc US Politics | AMERICAblog News: Mike Signorile to President Obama: "Come Out of the Closet on Gay Marriage"
Join Email List | About us | AMERICAblog Gay
Elections | Economic Crisis | Jobs | TSA | Limbaugh | Fun Stuff

Mike Signorile to President Obama: "Come Out of the Closet on Gay Marriage"



| Reddit | Tumblr | Digg | FARK

Mike Signorile has a must-read post over at Huffington's Gay Voices with a very clear, concise and important message for the President on marriage:

it's time for Obama to now kick down the closet door.
Read the post -- and people at the campaign HQ should read it, too (not that those geniuses ever listen to anyone.) We posted this at AMERICAblog Gay, too.

Mike outlines very clearly why this matters to the President's reelection:
And there are two things happening now that will make the president seem more disingenuous, fearful and weak if he does not come out for marriage equality. His own party is moving at light speed on the issue, with pressure mounting to include marriage equality in the Democratic Party platform. This week four former Democratic National Committee chairs joined the Democratic National Convention's chair, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, in calling for the platform to include full equality. As Greg Sargent explains, this makes the issue unavoidable for Obama at this point.

Secondly, Mitt Romney is now emerging as the sure Republican nominee, a man who supports "gay rights" but not "gay marriage" -- in other words, in the broad brush of politics and the media, having the same position as Obama. And you better believe, just like his buddy Chris Christie did, Romney will say that. Yes, of course it's not true when you look at the details. And true, Romney has veered far to the right in the primaries. But Romney is whipping out the Etch A Sketch as we speak, and our media can't be counted on to stop him from erasing the past and keeping the details submerged.

I've heard from caller after caller to my radio program, people from all across the country who describe themselves as gay Republicans and gay independents, or as straight, socially-liberal independents or moderate Republicans, who voted for Obama in 2008. They're experiencing Obama fatigue and were never really that loyal, voting for Obama mostly because the GOP had hit rock bottom under Bush. They're looking for reasons to vote for Romney, or, rather, against Obama. The president has got to clarify every blurry line between him and Romney, and on this issue, relevant to many of them, one way to do it is to come out for full equality.

Some people ask, If everyone assumes Obama secretly supports marriage, why does he need to say it? Because staying in closet makes him look scared and dishonest. It keeps him on the defensive and far behind his party -- not to mention behind Dick Cheney and Laura Bush. And it depresses energy. The campaign surely wants to tap into the youth vote it galvanized in 2008, and certainly an issue like this, a civil rights issue of our time and one that is a driving force on college campuses, is the way to go.

Obama and his campaign need to stop the fretting and the fear -- the cowering in the closet -- and get back to the bold message of, "Yes, we can!"


blog comments powered by Disqus