First President in US history endorses gay marriage and we don't have a thread on it?

[HotelUser]

This is Habbox Forum right? I'm shocked!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQGMTPab9GQ

My apologies if this has already been posted.

[-:Undertaker:-]

Well at least he is speaking from a personal point of view and not from the point of view of intending to impose it on U.S. states when 31 states (including North Carolina last week and the left-wing state of California) have rejected it in public referendums, with no states endorsing it via a referendum to date. *Assuming* Mitt Romney is the Republican nominee (and no, I dislike Romney as much as I do Obama as they're both pretty much identical) - Obama has only hurt his re-election prospects in pushing Christian voters towards Romney who they hadn't been all that keen on due to his Mormon background but whom will side with him on social issues such as this.

[efq]

It really annoys me that this needs to make news. There are gay people in this world, they shouldn't need to ask to be married or have to run somewhere where it is legal.

They have just as much right as anybody else. Jeez, imagine if every man and woman who got married had to go through this.

I don't care what anyone says, its pure discrimination and there isn't any argument in this case.

[-:Undertaker:-]

It really annoys me that this needs to make news. There are gay people in this world, they shouldn't need to ask to be married or have to run somewhere where it is legal.

They have just as much right as anybody else. Jeez, imagine if every man and woman who got married had to go through this.

I don't care what anyone says, its pure discrimination and there isn't any argument in this case.

I speak from my personal views of marriage here and I have to say, I object to it being called 'discrimination' in the way in which you seek to portray it as - we discriminate all the time between eachother, I do it everytime I go the toilet in the local ASDA because I am different to females hence why we have different toilets. Those who support marriage and see how important marriage is in western society to the traditional family wish to defend marriage based on those principles, it is not a case of "lets just not allow gays to get married for the sake of it". Indeed, a great deal of people agree with me hence why it has been rejected by 32 U.S. states and passed by none in referenda.

There seems to be a curious misunderstanding of what marriage is, it is not a romantic gesture - it is an age old institution between man and woman which serves the purpose of the family.

[efq]

I speak from my personal views of marriage here and I have to say, I object to it being called 'discrimination' in the way in which you seek to portray it as - we discriminate all the time between eachother, I do it everytime I go the toilet in the local ASDA because I am different to females hence why we have different toilets. Those who support marriage and see how important marriage is in western society to the traditional family wish to defend marriage based on those principles, it is not a case of "lets just not allow gays to get married for the sake of it". Indeed, a great deal of people agree with me hence why it has been rejected by 32 U.S. states and passed by none in referenda.

There seems to be a curious misunderstanding of what marriage is, it is not a romantic gesture - it is an age old institution between man and woman which serves the purpose of the family.Yes, but I just find it ridiculous how you can say a woman and man can get married just like that and a gay marriage is either frowned upon or illegal. If I were gay I would be fighting for normal marriage to be banned.

There is no harm whatsoever in allowing them to have a human right which everyone else has.

Gay people can have a family too. In fact gay people are more likely to have a better family and are better parents than those who aren't gay.

[HotelUser]

It really annoys me that this needs to make news. There are gay people in this world, they shouldn't need to ask to be married or have to run somewhere where it is legal.

They have just as much right as anybody else. Jeez, imagine if every man and woman who got married had to go through this.

I don't care what anyone says, its pure discrimination and there isn't any argument in this case.

I think marriage should be gender irrelevant and I believe this is quite substancial news because it signifies that in the future there will be better equality sooner rather than later.


Well at least he is speaking from a personal point of view and not from the point of view of intending to impose it on U.S. states when 31 states (including North Carolina last week and the left-wing state of California) have rejected it in public referendums, with no states endorsing it via a referendum to date. *Assuming* Mitt Romney is the Republican nominee (and no, I dislike Romney as much as I do Obama as they're both pretty much identical) - Obama has only hurt his re-election prospects in pushing Christian voters towards Romney who they hadn't been all that keen on due to his Mormon background but whom will side with him on social issues such as this.

Assuming Mitt Romney is the nominee is pretty safe right about now, as for you saying Romney and Obama are pretty much identical I don't think that's true at all and I think that's evident enough in looking at the simple differences between democrats and republicans (they're certainly not the same economy wise).

[-:Undertaker:-]

Assuming Mitt Romney is the nominee is pretty safe right about now, as for you saying Romney and Obama are pretty much identical I don't think that's true at all and I think that's evident enough in looking at the simple differences between democrats and republicans (they're certainly not the same economy wise).

Are they not? Republicans often skate over that it was actually George W. Bush who began the bailouts and not Obama who they now rally against for doing exactly the same thing. What else? both parties refuse to commit to any actual cuts to government spending with Romney rejecting the Paul $1tn plan last week and both parties being committed to the Federal Reserve system.

I'm sure I could find plenty more, but in election time people should look at past actions and voting records as opposed to rhetoric which is simply designed to play to each party base & rouse the party faithful.

http://www.iaza.com/work/120515C/iaza17174220059800.bmp

[FlyingJesus]

Nice of him to say this with elections coming up when he's spent the last 4 years stating that he thinks marriage should be a union between a man and a woman

Yes, Obama and Romney are extremely similar in political terms, but Obama will probably win the election because (and this is a genuine sentiment I've seen displayed in horrific amounts) people are willing to vote him as "the devil we know"

[FlyingJesus]

Sorry for double post but just gonna leave this here...

Obama: Sends drone strikes throughout Yemen, killing innocent civilians.
Obama: Sends drone strikes throughout Pakistan, killing innocent civilians.
Obama: Sends drone strikes throughout Somalia, killing innocent civilians.
Obama: Sends drone strikes throughout Afghanistan, killing innocent civilians.
Obama: Sends drone strikes throughout Iraq, killing innocent civilians.
Obama: Puts crippling trade sanctions on Iran to provoke another war, similar to events leading up to Pearl Harbor.
Obama: Signs NDAA, which allows for the indefinite detainment of US citizens on US soil, without a trial or charges.
Obama: Specifically instructs Congressional Committee writing 2012 NDAA to expand the aforementioned powers in the bill.
Obama: Expands and appoints executive agencies to bypass Congress and extend the powers of the executive branch even more than Bush.
Obama: Uses millions of tax dollars for personal vacations.
Obama: Assassinates two American citizens, one being only sixteen years old, without any due process.
Obama: Campaigns on closing Guantanamo Bay. Doesn't close Guantanamo Bay.
Obama: Calls for the arrest of alleged whistle-blower PFC Bradley Manning for allegedly leaking video footage of American soldiers killing Iraqi civilians ruthlessly and illegally.
Obama: Campaigns on transparency in government. Denies more FOIA requests than all previous administrations combined.
Obama: Speaks out against money in politics. Receives more money from Wall Street than any politician in history.
Obama: Endorses the torture of aforementioned Bradley Manning for eighteen months at Quantico before he's even charged with a crime.
Obama: Calls for excessive Pell grants, which inflate the price of college tuition for everyone.
Obama: Says he will not sign ACTA. Signs ACTA.
Obama: Signs the NDRP Act, allowing for the nationalization of any natural resource, product, factory, industry, business, or property on american soil in peacetime.
Obama: Announces end of American occupation of Iraq. Leaves 10,000 troops in Iraq.
Obama: Says he supports gay marriage.
Teens, "liberal" bloggers, and other people who don't read: WOO VOTE OBAMA

[Mathew]

Well that's got me thinking; I never thought there would be such drastic differences between the USA and the UK. There'd be uproar if "Gay marriage" (or any variant thereof) was rejected in the UK, but it's just the norm over there. Interesting.

[jasey]

It's great that you can compare Obama and Romney on the issues Daniel posted but where they differ greatly are social issues that are also pretty important to day to day life. Even if Obama did not change his mind to endorse gay marriage, he has always been a supporter of gay couples' rights and gay rights in general. Then we have the issues like abortion, reproductive rights, immigration, health care reform, poverty, minimum wage, job accessibility and welfare. By no means is that a complete list but they are all things a Republican and a Democrat will traditionally disagree on.

Politically, America is playing a game of samesies and has been more and more since the 9/11 attack. The two parties aren't exactly sitting in opposite corners of the huge American political playroom spitting at each other, either. They both want power but there are a thousand things they would do the same. They are not polar opposites and share more values than they do not share. If you were to plot the American Democrats and the American Republicans on a real political compass (please see here (http://politicalcompass.org/uselection2012)), you would notice Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are barely apart at all. You see how they are just a bit apart in the upper right section of the compass? This is not even the standard for every western nation — there are modern nations with major parties that fall in to the opposite 'green' part of the compass, for example. Canada's official opposition (second most powerful) party comes to mind.

I certainly don't think Barack Obama is a great Democrat but because of the lack of political diversity between the Democrats and the Republicans I have never really been particularly attached to any American politican. The only thing that makes me want Obama in for a second term is the way he will likely handle certain social issues in contrast to Romney.

To finish on a bit of a move in topic, I definitely acknowledge that marriage has traditionally between a man and a woman. In times past, marriage was traditionally only between a man and a woman of the same race. Seal and Heidi Klum? They had a pretty nice marriage and they gave it a good shot for a long time. Regardless, they would have been refused at pretty much any altar a century ago. It would be out of the question for the two to marry and struck down immediately. It wouldn't have been a shock to find out Seal had a bullet put in his head for trying to marry Klum. The beautiful, wonderful 'traditional' form of marriage you speak of also didn't come with the huge social and economic benefits marriage comes with as well. Those are a modern ammendment to marriage as is the right for a homosexual couple to marry.

It doesn't destroy the santicty of the term at all. We can list a thousand celebrity couples (and tens of thousands more of regular couples if we had access to their private lives) who got married as a man and a woman and pretty much made a joke out of it. No one is passing bans on Vegas quickies and weddings sponsored by your favourite multinational corporation. If you need further evidence, look to one of the many countries where gay marriage — not a 'civil union' — is fully legal. Is Canada ripping apart at the seams? Are Canadian social values gone to the wind and is the country now a brothel of debauchery and terrible disrespect? Not as far as anyone can tell. Did I mention Canada has a majority Conservative government at the moment?

Either gay marriage and conservative values can coexist or some weird magic rainbow radiation is making the Canadians all kooky and willing to accept crazy stuff! Cheers for your statement, Obama, no matter if it was a political move or just something you really believe. You gave people hope.

[GommeInc]

I hate American politics, it's just a hodge-podge of pageantry and how else to waste money and cause upheaval. I think the problem is the American view of politics on the world stage as they seem to think they are the leaders of democracy and freedom when they're not, and they are annoyingly arrogant and deluded with these ideas. I think we should just force them to be a colony of the UK again, strip them all of their adult costumes and put them back in baby clothes, they're still not ready - I think the majority of the world would agree with this.

As for the matter at hand - it's just words. Obama has famously backed 'traditional' marriage and this sudden change of heart seems to just be there to win votes, considering how close to the elections they are over there. There needs to be extra convincing that he means them, while at the same time not force his views on the states which have already voted against equal marriage.

[dbgtz]

Sorry for double post but just gonna leave this here...

Obama: Sends drone strikes throughout Yemen, killing innocent civilians.
Obama: Sends drone strikes throughout Pakistan, killing innocent civilians.
Obama: Sends drone strikes throughout Somalia, killing innocent civilians.
Obama: Sends drone strikes throughout Afghanistan, killing innocent civilians.
Obama: Sends drone strikes throughout Iraq, killing innocent civilians.
Obama: Puts crippling trade sanctions on Iran to provoke another war, similar to events leading up to Pearl Harbor.
Obama: Signs NDAA, which allows for the indefinite detainment of US citizens on US soil, without a trial or charges.
Obama: Specifically instructs Congressional Committee writing 2012 NDAA to expand the aforementioned powers in the bill.
Obama: Expands and appoints executive agencies to bypass Congress and extend the powers of the executive branch even more than Bush.
Obama: Uses millions of tax dollars for personal vacations.
Obama: Assassinates two American citizens, one being only sixteen years old, without any due process.
Obama: Campaigns on closing Guantanamo Bay. Doesn't close Guantanamo Bay.
Obama: Calls for the arrest of alleged whistle-blower PFC Bradley Manning for allegedly leaking video footage of American soldiers killing Iraqi civilians ruthlessly and illegally.
Obama: Campaigns on transparency in government. Denies more FOIA requests than all previous administrations combined.
Obama: Speaks out against money in politics. Receives more money from Wall Street than any politician in history.
Obama: Endorses the torture of aforementioned Bradley Manning for eighteen months at Quantico before he's even charged with a crime.
Obama: Calls for excessive Pell grants, which inflate the price of college tuition for everyone.
Obama: Says he will not sign ACTA. Signs ACTA.
Obama: Signs the NDRP Act, allowing for the nationalization of any natural resource, product, factory, industry, business, or property on american soil in peacetime.
Obama: Announces end of American occupation of Iraq. Leaves 10,000 troops in Iraq.
Obama: Says he supports gay marriage.
Teens, "liberal" bloggers, and other people who don't read: WOO VOTE OBAMA

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/10343112.jpg
Something that is irrelevant but you remind me of it and it still frustrates me.


Anyway in my books he's only reinforcing this now just to get votes. I mean, if it is him v Romney then it's likely Obama will win again purely because of his image compared to Romney, which it probably shouldn't be the reason but what can you do, most voters are idiots.