Saturday 19 May 2012

Obama: The First Gay President


It was the spring of 2007, back when Barack Obama’s bid for the presidency seemed quixotic at best. I’d seen Obama speak to a crowd and was impressed but wanted to see if what I’d seen from afar held up under closer scrutiny. So I asked to attend a private fundraiser in a tony apartment in Georgetown. I promised not to write anything. I just wanted to see the man up close and get a better sense of him and his character. At one point in the question-and-answer session, a woman looked him square in the eyes with what can only be called maternal grit. “My son is gay,” she said, and the room went suddenly quiet. “I don’t understand why you don’t support his right to marry the person he loves. It’s so disappointing to me.” Obama, without losing eye contact for a second, told her: “I want full equality for your son - all the rights and benefits that marriage brings. I really do. But the word ‘marriage’ stirs up so much religious feeling. I think civil unions are the way to go. As long as they are equal.”

My heart sank. Was this obviously humane African-American actually advocating a “separate but equal” solution - a form of marital segregation like the one that made his own parents’ marriage a felony in many states when he was born? The sudden equivocation made no sense - except as pure political calculation. And yet it also felt strained, as if he knew it didn’t quite fit. He wanted equality but not marriage - but you cannot have one without the other. On this issue, Obama’s excruciating nonposition was essentially “Yes we can’t.”

And yet somehow, simply by the way he answered that mother’s question, I didn’t believe it. I thought he was struggling between political calculation and his core belief in civil rights. And it was then that I realized he was both: a cold, steely, ruthless, calculating politician who nonetheless wanted to do the right thing in the end.

Last week he did it — in a move whose consequences are simply impossible to judge.

Source: Newsweek’s Andrew Sullivan on Barack Obama: The First Gay President

2,431 comments:

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way to go! said...

Ashley Nicole ‏@ashleyproperrr
@christiandubay's response to being told he looks like jake gyllenhaal "Well that's a huge compliment to jake gyllenhall" #byeee

Anonymous said...

Sasha ‏@Sasha4Jake
@adamlevine I know you're usually ignoring tweets concerning Jake, but this fake @Jake_Gyllenhaal is really damaging Jake's reputation.
14h ago

Anonymous said...

And learn typing, for god's sake.

LOL :)

BTW, that should be 'God's'.

Anonymous said...

Lauriane ‏@LaurianeB_
Comic con today with @StephenColletti @AUS10NICHOLS and @robertbuckley in Paris !
43m ago

Anonymous said...

Robert Buckley ‏@robertbuckley
Day 1 of Paris Comic-Con today. I wonder if they'll find my Princess Leia slave costume as hot as they do back home? ‪#conissues
50m ago

Anonymous said...

Stephen Colletti ‏@StephenColletti
France, I'm looking forward to you. Paris Comic-Con... let's geek, nerd and dork it to the limit. Be kind, we're red, white and blue too.
July 3

lol said...

SK said...

Because what else is Jake doing?

Because it's another day he's not shooting Enemy and not to be seen.

French it up fellows!

Anonymous said...

Is Special K joking or really suggesting that Jake is in Paris with Austin?

Anonymous said...

Special K is posting moronic things like all the time.

Anonymous said...

I'm second-hand embarrassed for SK, her bullshit is beyond pathetic.

Anonymous said...

Cassandra Davidson

OMG! just saw Jake Gyllenhaal. He was sitting in front of Ideya Latin Bistro with 2 women and we actually made eye contact. I am convinced we will now get married. Please allow me this fantasy!

Sunday July 1 at 7:46am, New York

https://www.facebook.com/cassandra.davidson.520#!/cassandra.davidson.520/posts/10150907428835893

P.S: I presume Facebook is showing my local time, so post is from 1:46am.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Trolly,

is there any sane argument to support Special K's wishful thinking?

Well?

Anonymous said...

Why are you so nervous about Jake being in Paris with Austin? Well?

Anonymous said...

LMAO!

Anonymous said...

9:01 AM - PG, is that you?

You ask OMGers to provide some kind of argument for their insane theories, but you can guess the answer - playing stupid as usual.

Anonymous said...

9:01 AM - silly trolly, Special K's delusional rats don't have anything to do with facts or reality. I'm sure you know that too.

Anonymous said...

My gosh, what a beautiful story from Frank Ocean!

Yes indeed :)

Anonymous said...

OMG! just saw Jake Gyllenhaal. He was sitting in front of Ideya Latin Bistro with 2 women

What a man! What a heterosexual man!

Anonymous said...

Ted is leaving?????? *cries*

Anonymous said...

It Can't Be True!

Anonymous said...

Shana ‏@ShanaOTH
Comic con ! Rencontre avec @robertbuckley @StephenColletti & @AUS10NICHOLS !!! It was awesome !!!!! http://pic.twitter.com/3GLhGIKm
35m ago

Anonymous said...

I wonder if PG will send in her CV?

Ted Casablanca said...

Thank You

Today 5:45 AM PDT by Ted Casablanca

The images are countless, breathtaking: Four editors-in-chief, 16 years online, piles of exclusives, plenty of gossip, invented languages, maddeningly fascinating celebrities (dead and alive) and most importantly—you. The reader.

We did this for two decades, folks! When The Awful Truth, which I founded at Premiere magazine 20 years ago, ends this week, it's not the deliciously decadent Blind Vices I will miss the most...

It's you barking types who always made me feel gloriously alive, with all you had to say and scream and be so real about.

That community is my life's (professional) work up until now. It has meant more to me than each of you will ever know.

But it really is time to move on.

If you don't agree, just keep in mind that when I first took this job at E!—in 1996, when the network founded E! Online—I was working at the established and respected Premiere magazine. Scores of people told me, "Online just isn't the place to go."

Everybody told me to pass on the job, and so I did. Then I called back the next day and an amazing man named Lew Harris said, yes, of course, I could change my mind. And I did.

So that's what I'd like my last words to be: Always do what you're not supposed to do.

And see you on Twitter @Ted_Casablanca.

PHOTOS: People Who Are Not Toothy Tile

http://uk.eonline.com/news/the_awful_truth/thank_you/327003

Anonymous said...

Ted is leaving?????? *cries*

Stop crying and keep an eye of OMGers, not sure they can survive this news!!! ;)

Anonymous said...

Oh look, Ted won't need to explain his BT gossip :)

OMG said...

OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TED PLEASE DON'T GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

But it really is time to move on.

I'm very curios about his new job. Good luck, Ted!

Anonymous said...

Yes, best wishes Ted and thanks! :*

Anonymous said...

Ay! No more Toothy Tile gossip!

Anonymous said...

Who will take up the Toothy mantle?

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