As in previous civil rights movements, federal legislation only option for change
While that's all well and good, it came literally a day late and a dollar short; the President's announcement came the day after North Carolina passed its constitutional ban of gay marriage. Meanwhile, the NAACP just now seems to realize what Frederick Douglass knew when he joined the women's suffrage movement 150 years ago: If you want your own rights, you must also be willing to fight for the rights of others.
President Obama's endorsement, while helpful to the cause, also ignored a prominent problem in the struggle. His message that states should continue to decide the issue completely ignores both the present-day circumstances and history — when it comes to civil rights, states are the worst offenders, not the protectors. To this day, the Federal Justice Department keeps 16 states on a watch list due to their consistent and egregious violations of civil rights. Not surprisingly, these same states are among those that have passed gay marriage bans.
Twenty-nine states refuse to recognize discrimination based on sexual orientation. Forty-two ban gay marriage and won't allow gay couples to form families or have medical rights in regards to their partner or receive spousal benefits like health care and citizenship. Forty-two states have done this because a core group of religious radicals have drummed up enough fear and ignorance to get a majority to vote down a minority.
The situation has only gotten worse since the economic collapse and the rise of the Radical Right. Politicians use homosexuals as punching bags to avoid discussing the real problems with society and our economy. Preachers are blaming homosexuals for terrorist attacks and wars or are advocating keeping them in electrified fences until they die out. That's the kind of language that was heard back in Nazi Germany. We're most certainly a better country than that.
It wasn't terribly long ago that President Obama or the leaders of the NAACP would have faced similar issues. They could have been denied decent jobs or houses in nice neighborhoods because of the color of their skin. If they loved someone who was white, their marriage would have been outlawed. Not terribly long ago, because the states thought it prudent to do so, people with their skin color were second-class citizens regardless of ability or education. It took the federal government to step in and force a change.
Lyndon Johnson had the conviction to add civil rights to his party's national platform, despite the knowledge that it would cost him the democrats in the South. President Obama should show the same kind of conviction now; it's time to make gay marriage a national issue, with a national marriage amendment, regardless of the political consequences.
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