Obama shame
Saw some folks sporting these Obama Pride stickers at the festival yesterday. No one offered me one. If s/he had, I probably would have put it on without thinking, but now I'm thinking about it and realizing that linking Obama to gay pride is totally incoherent. And I say that not only as someone who desperately wants Obama to be our next president, but as someone who is waiting impatiently for her Hebrew-character Barack Obama buttons and bumper sticker to arrive in the mail.
We've known all along that Obama, like every other candidate with a reasonable chance of winning the Democratic nomination, is publicly against marriage equality and for second class citizenship, i.e. "civil unions." Which is better than the steerage class citizenship we have now, but still sucks. But when he was asked what he thought about the situation in California, he made it worse.
In the past, he's talked about his take on it as a Christian, which is totally messed up because civil marriage equality has no effect on any religion's marriage ceremonies. But people keep playing the religion card -- look at those idiot clerks in San Diego county who say it's against their religion to give marriage licenses to same-sex couples -- and he's smart enough to know how senseless that is. This time around, he used everyone's favorite Religious Right catchphrase, "marriage is between a man and a woman."
Now why did he have to do that? He said it was a state issue, he said he supports civil unions -- why couldn't he just leave it at that?
Because he's pandering, that's why. And he doesn't give a shit how I feel, because Maryland is indigo blue and because he knows I don't have anywhere else to go.
So I feel Obama shame. I feel shame because once again, I'm supporting a candidate who doesn't really give a shit about me. A candidate who thinks he is more deserving of basic civil rights than I am. A candidate who doesn't believe I am a full citizen of this country. And I feel ashamed of the Democratic Party, which needs to grow a pair and be truly progressive for a change. And I feel sick and angry about having nowhere else to go.
Radical Russ said it much better than I have over on Pam's House Blend.
We've known all along that Obama, like every other candidate with a reasonable chance of winning the Democratic nomination, is publicly against marriage equality and for second class citizenship, i.e. "civil unions." Which is better than the steerage class citizenship we have now, but still sucks. But when he was asked what he thought about the situation in California, he made it worse.
In the past, he's talked about his take on it as a Christian, which is totally messed up because civil marriage equality has no effect on any religion's marriage ceremonies. But people keep playing the religion card -- look at those idiot clerks in San Diego county who say it's against their religion to give marriage licenses to same-sex couples -- and he's smart enough to know how senseless that is. This time around, he used everyone's favorite Religious Right catchphrase, "marriage is between a man and a woman."
Now why did he have to do that? He said it was a state issue, he said he supports civil unions -- why couldn't he just leave it at that?
Because he's pandering, that's why. And he doesn't give a shit how I feel, because Maryland is indigo blue and because he knows I don't have anywhere else to go.
So I feel Obama shame. I feel shame because once again, I'm supporting a candidate who doesn't really give a shit about me. A candidate who thinks he is more deserving of basic civil rights than I am. A candidate who doesn't believe I am a full citizen of this country. And I feel ashamed of the Democratic Party, which needs to grow a pair and be truly progressive for a change. And I feel sick and angry about having nowhere else to go.
Radical Russ said it much better than I have over on Pam's House Blend.