Today should have been a hopeful day. On the heels of yesterday’s successful vote to amend the North Carolina State Constitution to ban gay
marriage, the internet quickly and vociferously decried the intolerance we
witnessed with the passing of A1. I was relieved to see the overwhelming
opposition of this amendment through discussions on a multitude of politically
neutral online communities and in the columns of today’s (supposed-to-be politically
neutral) papers. My faith in the conjecture that the majority of
well-informed, rational Americans did not see gay marriage as a “real” issue
anymore was quickly reaffirmed, as the conclusion of this morning’s discussion
tended to be that this amendment was archaic at best.
But this afternoon, President Barack Obama announced that he
now supports same-sex marriage. Even though I believe that this is a
step in the right direction, and that the effects of this decision will be
advantageous for the LGBTQ community… I don’t think we should be praising President Obama for finally
adopting a policy that grants a large group of Americans such a basic human
right. Furthermore, we should question the integrity of this decision given the
events in North Carolina yesterday, and the falling poll numbers of the Obama
campaign.
