Many straight people wonder what the whole to-do is about gay marriage. For me, among other things, it boils down to affirming the right of gay people to exist, to be who they are, and to have that identity recognized and validated by our civil society.
For this reason, among others, I am grateful to President Obama for coming out in favor of gay marriage. Particularly, if I had the opportunity to do so, I would thank him for, as commentator Andrew Sullivan (who is gay) wrote in the cover story for the current issue of Newsweek, shifting the mainstream: "To have the president of the United States affirm my humanity—and the humanity of all gay Americans—was, unexpectedly, a watershed. He shifted the mainstream in one interview.”
As the father of young (and not so young) children, I am particularly grateful for President Obama's support, which helps me to hold my head high and not be ashamed of who I am. He has taken the issue of sexual identity out of the shadows of shame where many people would like to keep it in our civil society and has brought it into the full noon-day sun of acceptance.
Others in the gay community, including the gay Mormon community, have commented that Obama is simply being politically opportunistic. Whatever. Frankly, I don't care what Obama's motivations were. The same sorts of comments were made when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The point is, he (both Obama and Lincoln) did it. As a result, the whole national debate on gay marriage has shifted and I can now say to my children, or others can say to them, that the President of the United States is in favor of gay marriage.
In the book of this gay father, that's huge.
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