After taking the oath of office on a Bible once owned by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., President Obama used his second inaugural address Monday to make an emphatic call for gay rights, elevating the movement to iconic civil rights battles for racial and gender equality.
The president’s references to an influential 19th-century women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y.; a bloody voting rights clash in 1965 in Selma, Ala.; and Stonewall Inn, the scene of a 1969 uprising by gay men in a bar in New York’s Greenwich Village thrilled gay rights advocates, whose efforts to compare their struggles for equality to those of blacks and women have been long met with bitter controversy. And at least one scholar saw them as historic.
Comments
Speaking out against a hateful law is not contrary to the constitution. People like Kris and Brian profit off their vitriol from others as despicable as they are. I am proud to live where people who stand up for their rights are respected and fascists such as these two are largely ignored excpt by stupid people with too much money and gullibility.
This, all while he continues the imperialistic militarism overseas, dropping bombs and killing all manner of innocents just to flex US muscle and keep oil markets open better to supply our SUVs, just like the president before him.
I'm gay and I'd be much happier if he stopped using the power of the federal government to kill people, assasinate people, detain people without charges and all the other loathesome stuff our government does these days.
To stand on a podium and talk the way he does while quietly going about his killing is beyond disgusting.
And he used ML King's bible for his swearing in too. Did Obama ever read what King said about our behavior overseas being linked to a rotten national charactor at home?
What nerve he has.
Some background information to back up what I just said about Obama versus King: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/21/king-obama-drones-militarism-sanctions-iran
"What I always found most impressive, most powerful, about King's April 4 speech is the connection he repeatedly made between American violence in the world and its national character. Endless war wasn't just destructive in its own right, but is something that ensures that America's "soul becomes totally poisoned", fosters "spiritual death", perpetuates the "malady within the American spirit", and elevates "the Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them." In sum, to pursue endless war is "to worship the god of hate" and "bow before the altar of retaliation"."Gosh, I wish The Globe and its op-ed writers could dig down at least a little deeper like this Guardian article did.
But relax, I can kiss and make love with whomever I want, while the President and government goes on killing at will.
Seriously, you have to reach out to people like Camenker for a quote? No, you don't. He and others like him have nothing constructive to add to this conversation. It's about time the media showed some journalistic integrity and did not seek out or quote these bigots and haters for some twisted sense of balance. It's not balance when you give a homophobe a platform. It's cowardice. It's not helpful when you ask the ignorant for their comments, especially when you know they will just repeat their vacuous and unfounded talking points. If you can't find anyone with a thoughtful and valid opposing point of view, then say so in your reporter's quest for the truth rather than falling into the trap and bane of modern journalism, which is often the abrogation of that responsibility.
Holdthesugar,
In your mind, there's probably nobody with "a thoughtful and valid opposing point of view."
Or is there? Who might it be, and what do they say? Any idea? Or do you just refuse to listen to anybody disagreeing with you? If so, THAT'S cowardice.
@Becky: The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated MassResesistance as an anti-gay hate group. Getting a quote from Brian Camenker on gay marriage is liking getting a quote from a Klan Dragan on blacks marrying whites.
Kris Mineau's "logic" in critisizing President Obama regarding his swearing to uphold the constitution yet refusing to "defend the Defense of Marriage Act" makes me wonder who these people are who call themselves leaders. Mr. Mineau: The president has a right, just as you and all of us do, to vocally disagree with any laws. It's called free speech. To openly disagree with a law does not mean that one is violating their sworn duty to uphold the Constitution. If you want to be taken seriously in your position as a leader, then you need to do some further reading and to learn more. Comments like yours, reminds people of the civil rights movement back n the 1960's and how difficult it was to teach away ignorance (which breeds hate).
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The quotes from these "family" groups only serve to show how necessary the President's stance is, and how appropriate his words are. It's a fine Tuesday in our America, with the right President for our times sworn in for a second term.
Most probable is that one of Obama's speech writers slipped it in.
But, because the President equates 'gay rights' with 'civil rights,' does not make it true. Shocking that a Black man would equate the two.
BIG, BIG difference and no comparison between them.
As one who campaigned and voted for Obama, I'd like to say: Shut up and get towork! Yeah, I like your Wife's bangs too, but uh, our Government is becoming a joke, and we're headed for another War. Your mere presence and speechifying won't accomplish squat. Grow a pair and get back to work! If you governed the nation like you par-tayed we'd be in better shape..