President Obama has become the first U.S. President to openly support gay marriage. Like any issue in an election year, you can claim political motivation all you want. I think it was a risky move on his part. For all the surveys that show increasing acceptance of same sex marriage, there is enough of a fired up electorate who are so intolerant that they can vote to use state law to deny basic rights to a lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender minority. The North Carolina vote to ban gay marriage officially relegates one group of American citizens to second class status. If we left civil rights issues in the sixties up to a popular vote, we know what would have happened: little or nothing. Ironically, racial and ethnic minorities affected by the civil rights movement tend to be even less tolerant of same sex marriage. Defenders of the status quo shrewdly and cynically seized upon this divide to keep traditional Democratic voters away from the polls in urban areas of Ohio, a key state in the 2004 Presidential election. There is every evidence we can expect more of the same this time around. As I pointed out before, we've made progress in race relations but have a considerable way to go despite all the laws, political correctness and good intentions. The same can be said about gay rights.. Mayor Corey Booker of Newark, a man who impresses me more each day, said it's not a gay rights issue - it's about human rights. You are entitled to your convictions about whom somebody else wants to love, but we can't make them any less of a citizen because of it.
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