Public Weighs In On President Obama’s Endorsement of Gay Marriage

As soon as the news of President Obama’s earth-shaking endorsement of same-sex marriage broke, I jumped on my Facebook page to ask friends to weigh in.   We’d like to hear from you if you think his views will have a powerful impact on the coming presidential election.

Many Democrats hailed Obama’s dramatic comments to ABC’s Robin Roberts; some Republicans, including Mitt Romney, voiced opposition; religious conservatives lambasted the president. But it remains to be seen how such a sensitive issue plays with voters, and in my book Facebook is as good a listening post as any.

Here’s a particularly passionate response from reader Phil Catalfo:  “Yes, I think he was right to do so and I think it was courageous of him. Frankly, I wasn’t sure it would be best for him to do it, because I was worried about the political cost; I think it’s imperative that he be reelected and that the Republicans be handed resounding defeats this year at all levels of government, given the outrageous things they have enacted or attempted to enact at the federal and state level. But President Obama did the right thing, and I salute him for it. By the way, lest anyone think I’m a gay activist, I’m a 61-year-old straight male who has been married to the same woman for nearly 34 years. And I have never felt that homosexuality or the prospect of gay marriage posed any kind of threat to our marriage–nor that it went against God’s will.”

This from Amy Lewis: ”I am always surprised that as Americans we were founded on freedom but decide that freedom is only justified if it fits “OUR” idea.  One of your responders talks about this in a religious context.  I believe in God too but how in the …hell can I justify MY God as being the ONLY WAY????  (Or as my grandmother used to say, “Who died and made YOU God?????”) There are straight and gay athiests, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Wiccans, Buddhists, etc…..  They have a right to live their lives as they see fit.  If you believe in hell and damnation, then its STILL between them and God, isn’t it????”

And another from Jim Moore: “As I noted in a post earlier today to my daughters and friends who live in North Carolina and who are LGBT supporters, we cannot effect social change dismissively, or by remaining on the sidelines–whether those sidelines border a Nort…h Carolina community or the White House. Suggesting that the rectitude of same-sex marriage should not be loaded into our moral or political GPSs is to suggest that there is nothing more to be done, that there is no longer a path to be followed on the way to social and legal justice for all. Such a position (or lack thereof) gives power to the benighted, and takes power away from those who still need support on their journey to acceptance. To quote Dr. King, in his 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail, “I am sure that each of you would want to go beyond the superficial social analyst who looks merely at effects and does not grapple with underlying causes.”  The President says he has grappled with the underlying causes and has taken a position beyond social analysis; would that more of us would do that.”

Update: I had the opportunity to interview Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) about his views on the announcement.