By Lori Adelman • @ladelman • 11 years ago

What Would Happen If Obama Supported Gay Marriage?

While NC tries to ban gay marriage, yesterday Katie wrote about how Joe Biden is being pushed into the closet on gay marriage after expressing his full support on Meet The Press for same-sex marriage.

Within hours of the appearance, a Biden aid  felt the need to clarify the comments and senior Obama campaign advisor David Axelrod tweeted, “What VP said – that all married couples should have exactly the same legal rights – is precisely POTUS’s position,” a comment that Katie felt came off as “pathetic, desperate and spineless.”

Today, as the fallout continues and that political spin machine continues to churn out explanations, clarifications, and  rationalizations, TPM has a great piece exploring the question on every Obama-loving liberal’s mind: what would actually happen if Obama supported gay marriage?Evan Mcmorris Santo writes:

President Obama is taking a lot of heat this week for still refusing to articulate his position on same-sex marriage well over a year since he first said “attitudes evolve, including mine.”

But even if Obama does complete the evolution in the way most expect — an eventual endorsement of marriage equality — what, exactly, would it accomplish, beyond a symbolic victory for same-sex marriage activists? Not a whole lot, believe gay rights groups and observers.

It’s an interesting footnote to the debate over Obama’s stance on gay marriage — the fact is, Obama’s basically doing all the things marriage equality advocates want him to do already. Even if he is doing it without saying explicitly whether he supports marriage rights for LGBT couples.

The whole piece is a worth a read if you’re following the fallout from Biden’s comments yesterday. We’ve written before about the limitations of focusing solely on gay marriage in the fight for LGBTQ rights- Jos has called it “an assimilationist approach to gaining rights and acceptance.” But there’s something to be said for exploring the strategy and motivation of a Democratic candidate who won’t openly support it, and this piece has some good information and insight into that decision.

Brooklyn, NY

Lori Adelman started blogging with Feministing in 2008, and now runs partnerships and strategy as a co-Executive Director. She is also the Director of Youth Engagement at Women Deliver, where she promotes meaningful youth engagement in international development efforts, including through running the award-winning Women Deliver Young Leaders Program. Lori was formerly the Director of Global Communications at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and has also worked at the United Nations Foundation on the Secretary-General's flagship Every Woman Every Child initiative, and at the International Women’s Health Coalition and Human Rights Watch. As a leading voice on women’s rights issues, Lori frequently consults, speaks and publishes on feminism, activism and movement-building. A graduate of Harvard University, Lori has been named to The Root 100 list of the most influential African Americans in the United States, and to Forbes Magazine‘s list of the “30 Under 30” successful mediamakers. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Lori Adelman is an Executive Director of Feministing in charge of Partnerships.

Read more about Lori

Join the Conversation