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Michael K. Lavers at Boy in Bushwick reports on this windfall for the President’s re-election:
President Barack Obama cited the repeal of the ban on openly gay and lesbian servicemembers his administration’s most important LGBT-specific accomplishments at a private fundraiser in Washington, D.C., on Thursday night that raised $1.4 million for his re-election campaign.
“The perception was somehow that this would be this huge, ugly issue,” Obama told 40 people who gathered at Karen Dixon and Dr. Nan Schaffer’s home in Northwest. “But because we did it methodically, because we brought the Pentagon in, because we got some very heroic support from people like [former Defense Secretary] Bob Gates and [retired Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. ] Mike Mullen, and they thought through institutionally how to do it effectively–since it happened, nothing’s happened.”
One other little detail — this fundraiser was held at the home of a married lesbian couple. Interestingly, over at ABCNews, reporters Devin Dwyer and Jake Tapper had this blunt takeaway from the event – “Obama, No Same-Sex Marriage Supporter, Solicits Cash at Home of Lesbian Couple.”
President Obama, who has opposed same-sex marriage but is said to be “evolving” on the issue, this evening is attending a fundraiser at the home of a lesbian couple whose 2008 Chicago nuptials were described in a local paper as the “wedding of the season.”
Dixon and Schaffer, transplants from Chicago, held a wedding ceremony in July 2008 with hundreds of guests attending from all across the country, according to an account in the Windy City Times. Photos of the ceremony are available HERE.
…Asked whether Obama supports marriages like that between Dixon and Schaffer and whether their marriage in Chicago should have been afforded the same rights and privileges as those given to heterosexual couples, Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt offered the following comment:
“The President has long opposed a Federal Marriage Amendment, supported the repeal of DOMA, and been clear that this was a matter than states should decide.”
When it comes to the gAyTM, it’s always been open for the President and he doesn’t even have to punch the buttons to get the cash to pour out from the moneyed gays. However, it’s nice to know that it’s not just LGBT bloggers pointing out the President’s nonsensical need to “evolve” on marriage equality. This political fig leaf has blown away; Barack Obama’s current ”states rights” position on marriage is an embarrassment in the wake of 1967′s Loving v. Virginia and everyone knows it. Evolve already.
5 Comments
Why just focus on Obama’s regression on marriage (since his IL days)?
Obama is still silent on the civil union banning NC amendment.
No need for a big marriage equality announcement to say he opposed to the NC amendment, but he still hasn’t done it.
We’ve demanded an anti-amendment statement from our gubernatorial candidates in NC.
So, no Obama vote from me in NC.
The White House has stated the President’s position (lamely), that he opposes ballot initiatives that vote on the civil rights of people, but then says states have the right to decide to enact marriage equality.
What I want from him is a video PSA opposing the NC amendment.
If they live in the District, why haven’t Dixon and Shaffer gotten married (no, whatever they did in Chicago in 2008 wasn’t a wedding, and back then it wasn’t even a civil union).
It’s hard enough to make the case for marriage equality in this country. It’s even harder when committed couples who live where they could get married fail to do so, particularly when, as this couple does, they seem to follow the pretense that a nice little commitment ceremony is adequate.
Voters across North Carolina have asked for AND RECEIVED statements opposing the NC amendment from:
All currently annouced Democratic candidates for Governor:
Lt. Governor Walter Dalton
NC state Rep. Bill Faison
former Congressman Bob Etheridge.
Current federal office holders including:
US Rep. David Price (D)
US Rep. Renee Ellmers (R)
Candidates for federal office including:
Anti-Gay Mayor Terry Bellamy of Asheville (!!!)
It’s silly to settle for less from Obama, and I will not.
The question to push on the White House is “Do you have a problem holding your party’s national convention in a state that just a few months earlier wrote some of its citizens out of the Constitution?”