Obama frames marriage equality as civil right

August 16 was a rather historic day for marriage equality. America’s favorite lesbian, comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres married her long-time partner, actress Portia de Rossi in their Los Angeles manse. It was one of the highest profile ceremonies of its kind to take place since the California Supreme Court legalized same sex nuptials in the Golden State earlier this year.

An hour away, in Lake Forest, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama participated in the first joint appearance with his likely Republican counterpart, Sen. John McCain at a presidential forum on faith and politics hosted by Evangelical preacher Rick Warren at his Saddleback mega church.

The two hour event which aired live on various cable channels was an effort by Obama to make inroads with “values voters” and for McCain, an effort to shore up their support. The venue was not a friendly one for Obama and McCain seemed far more comfortable despite his hesitancy to talk about faith. The fact is McCain should have felt at ease as the entire exchange seemed skewed towards showing him in the best possible light. But I digress.

Putting my aversion to overpaid and in Warren’s case, overfed televangelists aside, I tuned into CNN because I had a sneaking suspicion gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) equality might come up. I didn’t have to wait long.
“Define marriage,” barked Warren.

“I believe that marriage is a union between a man and a woman,” Obama replied.
The audience erupted into wild applause. Obama squirmed. I threw the remote.
“Would you support a constitutional amendment…?” Warren asked.

“No I would not,” Obama stated to less enthusiastic applause. He went on to trot out that old dog and pony show explaining how it was a state issue, blah, blah, blah—but then something happened—Obama began to find his voice on the issue.

“I’m not somebody who promotes same sex marriage, but I do believe in civil unions,” he began. “I do believe that for gay partners to want to visit each other in a hospital—for the state to say, you know, that’s all right—I don’t think [that] in any way inhibits my core beliefs about what marriage is. I think my faith is strong enough and my marriage is strong enough that I can afford those civil rights to others even if I have a different perspective or a different view.”

Well that was new, I thought to myself as I shoved the batteries back into the remote. Finally a politician is finding a way to talk about marriage equality proactively and rebuff the arguments that it is somehow a threat to the institution of marriage and frame it as a civil rights issue.

As I did with Hillary Clinton, I give Obama a pass when he says he is opposed to gay marriage but supports civil unions because hey, he has to get elected. But I do this with the strong suspicion that Obama and a lot of other progressive politicians are leaning towards if not already inclined to support full marriage equality but are in want of some political cover. In short, I don’t believe they’re morally opposed to the idea.
In the meantime Obama’s statement, with a little tweaking, is exactly how progressive pols should frame the issue of marriage equality; especially once a few more states legalize it and the GLBT and allied community start holding their feet to the fire.
For it is a civil rights issue, and affording those rights to committed same sex couples will in no way impact negatively on anyone’s matrimonial bliss. If it does, there was something rotten with the union in the first place.

Over the past four years the GLBT community has suffered our so called political allies saying that they oppose gay marriage but support civil unions and just leave it at that. Therefore, it’s nice to finally hear the Democratic standard bearer articulate the next sentence in the debate. It’s hardly sweeping progress—but when it comes to politics, I’ll take it.

Oh—and congrats to Ellen and Portia.

You can e-mail Colin Murphy at colin_murphy@sbcglobal.net.