White House Says No to Antigay Referenda

What about this: Civil Unions for everybody; make civil union the national standard, and reserve the term Marriage for those whose civil unions are "blessed" by clergy. In the same way that my son has a birth certificate issued by the state, and a baptismal certificate issued by the church, he has certain rights under law as a legal and documented natural born American citizen, and other "benefits" in a manner of speaking as a member of a Christian denomination and congregation. Nobody had to officiate at his birth on behalf of religion. If the sticking point is the word "marriage" then let the religious congregations have what makes them happy according to Scripture. That shouldn't stop committed individuals from bonding their lives together in a legal contract. I think we progressives, especially those who are members of a congregation, have to give up this fixation.

It is unfortunate that our great "HOPE", is falling short on his support for those that supported him. Obama took advantage of the LGBT community by rallying our political support and now we need him to make clear decisive decisions in support of gay marriage. His wishy-washy political fence riding is absolutely unacceptable. Diplomatic decision making is one thing, but his innability to support the gay community in the repeal is a slap in our face. I encourage each and every LGBT american to send a letter in opposition to his innaction. Perhaps our voice will be loud enough to pierce the ears of the ambivilent political machine?

Splash, it depends upon the country. I can only answer the qeustion for the UK and only in relation to immigration. The UK recognizes marriages and D-partnerships performed in US states between same-sex couples for the purposes of immigration. I know this because my husband and I just immigrated to the UK and our California marriage is recognized here. That said, Obama is dancing on his normal homophobic fence. He says nothing specific and offers no real help, only the minimum he has been advised is required to maintain gay donations to his reelection campaign. How anyone in America can consider someone who believes in separate but equal for gay people as a civil rights maverick, is beyond my understanding.

Derrick, the "we aren't under the Cheney Administration" is a poor defense. That is exactly the point, he isn't Bush so why is he basically continuing Bush's policies. Americans have become satisfied with accepting 25% politicians and the "lesser of two evils." Having another over-educated smiley face in the White House may satisfy you but I think Bush doing nothing and in fact working against gay rights and Obama's doing nothing but thinking everyone is stupid enough to think that he can speak his way out of it are about the same thing. Not enforcing equal protection under the law is NOT acceptable and neither is Obama's blue ball approach to legislation.

Obama supports civil unions instead of marriage for same-sex couples. Although many take this to mean equality, it isn't. We'd see the creation of a separate class of citizens, whose rights can be determined by the individual state in which they reside. FULL equality is what we need. If the state wants to define and be in the marriage business, it needs to offer this to all. OR else just offer civil unions to all!

The issue of gay marriage in the USA is more than a local, state or national issue. It is also about international recognition as a couple. If America's "civil unions" become the reality, will these couples be recognized throughout the world community as persons having all the rights, benefits, obligations and safeguards that marriage provides?

We need your help - if you have a Facebook account, please join the group SaveCalifornia.com (Become A Fan) to help counter the lies being spread about Harvey Milk and the recently passed legislation in California to create a day in honor of Harvey Milk.

Notice that President Obama doesn't actually refer to either the Maine referendum or the Washington issue. He's really being as vague as possible - trying to word things so that LGBT people will think he's supporting them and straight people won't know what he's talking about.

The HRC shot itself in the foot Saturday. Does mother Robertson have Obama's balls in her hand?

Instead of pressuring Obama, how about pressuring all you state representatives and senators? He can only go out on a limb so far before he falls to the ground. He's willing to stand with us but, we can't expect for him to stand alone with us, CAN WE? Yes, we have waited far too long for Equality but, don't push Obama off the branch or we'll find ourselves 2 steps behind. Keep the congressional phone system grid locked with calls until we win! I also think mass demonstrations(silent, but with tongue action) at all Catholic and Mormon churches(those folks behind trying to deny us marriage rights) would be excellent until the fight is over.