Obama administration will no longer defend DOMA

Every argument they advance in court is not religious. Most of them have to do with child-rearing, i.e. that marriage is meant to create children, or that children are better off with both genders around. For example, even some bans on first cousin marriage in some states, I believe, end when both parties are over 50.

Of course, that doesn't explain why elderly people can get married. Or infertile people.

 

Re Obama, re this issue:

This is easy.

He's well aware that the black population polls broadly-against gay marriage.

Thus, he's NEVER going to plump for it, full-bore.

 

That's a great, great point.

We all think he's pandering to conservatives (because he so often does). In this case, he's pandering to part of his own base. Goes along with Mizzou's contention that this isn't a right-left issue. He said it's generational, but it is also largely racial/socioeconomic.

 

And, this is why it's disappointing.

Who but Obama could have an impact on African-American opinion? If he really believes that it's a right, be should come out and say it.

He should lead.

But, he won't and it's disgraceful.

Of all the things Obama has ever said, when he said that he'd rather be a consequential one-term president than an inconsequential two term president, was the biggest joke.

Obama is a conventional politician, pure and simple.

 

. . . hmmm, I know that handbasket is around here somewhere . . .

 

I read somewhere that gay marriage has more support among the public, percentage-wise, at this point in time than interracial marriage had when it was banned by the Supreme Court.

 

I would be very curious to see how this would do on a national ballot.

I don't put too much stock in some of the state elections because the bills are often worded so badly that people don't know what they're voting for/against.

I want to see it on the national ballot. Do you think same-sex marriage should be legal?

I'm guessing it would fail, only because the elderly would all show up to vote no, while turnout would be much lower among those who either favor it or are indifferent to it.

 

It would be interesting. Being around young people, this is one of the few issues they actually seem to care about and that might rally them to the polls. They are so far removed from things like property tax issues and education funding that they can't be bothered. But gay marriage gets their blood pumping something fierce.

 

Really good polling data here:

http://www.pollingreport.com/civil.htm

 

Compare to historical polling on interracial marriage:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/28417/most-americans-approve-interracial-marriages.aspx


Some highlights:

1958: Only 4 percent approved, and 94 percent disapproved.

1968: Only 20 percent approved, and 73 percent disapproved (Year of the Loving v. Virginia court ruling that interracial marriage bans violated the 14th Amendment)

2007: 77 percent approved, only 17 percent disapproved.

 

There is a lot of data in the gay marriage poll link, but the money shot, to me, is here:

CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll. Dec. 19-21, 2008. N=1,013 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.


.


"Do you think marriages between gay and lesbian couples should or should not be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages?"

Should: 44%
Should Not: 55%
Unsure: 1%

By the time that interracial marriage crossed the same threshold (44 percent) of public approval that gay marriage holds today, it was 1991, and interracial marriage had been the law for more than two decades.