As
you surely already know, President Obama came out of the closet last week as
totally gay – for gay marriage, anyway. Obama’s support for marriage equality
had been, let’s face it, an open secret of sorts. I mean, everybody knew that
he supported it, but he pretended to be all conflicted about the issue, going
so far as to say he believed marriage was a one-man one-woman operation.
This,
in spite of the fact that back in 1996 he told Outlines, a gay newspaper,
"I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to
prohibit such marriages." Needless to say, Obama’s painfully slow
"evolution" on the issue was a sore spot for many lesbian and gay folks.
Hell,
even after he said publicly and on purpose into a TV camera that marriage
equality is cool with him, it’s still a sore spot for some. The Log Cabin
Republicans were quick to piss all over the announcement and the Internet was
atwitter with grumblings about the whole thing being too little, too late.
But
I say, screw all that. The bottom line is, for the first time in history we
have a sitting president who acknowledges that our families not only exist, but
they are valid and should be afforded equal treatment enshrined in law. And
this is huge.
Oh,
but that Newsweek cover with the neon rainbow halo over Obama’s head with the
headline, "The First Gay President?" That shit is crazy. Obama is no more gay
than Bill Clinton is black.
Still,
with Obama giving the thumbs up to marriage equality and talking about
repealing the Defense of Marriage Act, the choice between him and Mitt Romney
is starker than ever.
After
Obama’s pro-gay marriage announcement, Romney told the audience during a
commencement address at Liberty University, "Culture matters. As fundamental as
these principles are, they may become topics of democratic debate. So it is
today with the enduring institution of marriage. Marriage is a relationship
between one man and one woman."
On
May 10 Romney said, "And if two people of the same gender want to live
together, want to have a loving relationship, or even to adopt a child - in my
state individuals of the same sex were able to adopt children. In my view,
that's something that people have a right to do. But to call that marriage is
something that in my view is a departure from the real meaning of that
word."
The
very next day Romney backpedaled, saying that he was just saying that same-sex
couples adopting kids together was something that does happen, not something
that should.
And
then there’s that horrifying Washington Post report about Romney bullying a kid
everybody thought was gay in high school, complete with an episode recalled by
"five students, who gave their accounts independently of one another." Evoking
that terrifying scene from Mommie Dearest, Romney hacked the kid’s hair off
with scissors while Romney’s friends held him down.
Oh,
and don’t forget that Romney’s foreign policy advisor, Richard Grenell, was
given the ol’ heave ho after right-wing conservatives pitched a fit because
Grenell is a homo.
It’s
no wonder that Bill White, a "well-known, openly gay supporter of Mitt Romney"
according to CNN, switched teams. White, who now supports Obama, even demanded
Romney refund his big campaign contribution. Ouch.
My
guess is that White isn’t the only LGBT defector. And with good reason. Even
this early in the 2012 election, it’s pretty clear that any LGBT person who
votes Romney might as well beat themselves with a wire hanger.
Evoking that terrifying scene from Mommie Dearest, Romney hacked the kid’s hair off with scissors while Romney’s friends held him down.