Where does Obama stand on gay rights?

[Edan]

Yes, one man and one woman do have a recognized right to get married. No such right currently exists for gay or lesbian couplings. Thank you for proving my point.

So you only support equal rights for all people when they've already been recognized?

[Drake Tungsten]

Everyone already has an equal right to get married. What's at issue is whether the definition of what constitutes marriage should be altered to incorporate non-traditional couplings.

[Edan]

Everyone already has an equal right to get married. What's at issue is whether the definition of what constitutes marriage should be altered to incorporate non-traditional couplings.

Like blacks and whites.

Do you really think gay people should marry straight people of the opposite gender in order to exercise their "right"?

[Drake Tungsten]

Like blacks and whites.

Read some history. The southern U.S. was an anomaly in not allowing miscegenation.

Do you really think gay people should marry straight people of the opposite gender in order to exercise their "right"?

Of course not. If they don't want to get married, they shouldn't do it. Plenty of straight people make the same choice.

[Jon Miller]

Whiles and blacks were traditional couplings excepting a century or two... (and mostly in the US south)

While slavery and prejudice are not unsual, the dehumanizing that went on was and is.

JM

[Edan]

Like blacks and whites.

Read some history. The Southern U.S. was an anomaly in not allowing miscegenation.

It was only in 1957 when a majority of states allowed interracial relationships.

Do you really think gay people should marry straight people of the opposite gender in order to exercise their "right"?

Of course not. If they don't want to get married, they shouldn't do it. Plenty of straight people make the same choice.

So then while they may technically have a de jure right to get married, they don't have de facto right to.

But then, blacks and whites could get married too. Just not to each other.

[Drake Tungsten]

It was only in 1957 when a majority of states allowed interracial relationships.

Your American ethnocentrism disgusts me. The fact that America did something for a couple hundred years means **** all in the greater historical scheme of things.

So then while they may technically have a de jure right to get married, they don't have de facto right to.

Of course they do. Using Latin words doesn't make this point any less moronic.

[Edan]

It was only in 1957 when a majority of states allowed interracial relationships.

Your American ethnocentrism disgusts me. The fact that America did something for a couple hundred years means **** all in the greater historical scheme of things.

Well, much of the world that respects rights is beginning to allow gay marriages. And this thread was started about gay rights in America anyway, so :P

Of course they do. Using Latin words doesn't make this point any less moronic.

The have a right that they should never exercise. That's not much of a right.

[MrFun]

Like blacks and whites.

Read some history. The southern U.S. was an anomaly in not allowing miscegenation.

Do you really think gay people should marry straight people of the opposite gender in order to exercise their "right"?

Of course not. If they don't want to get married, they shouldn't do it. Plenty of straight people make the same choice.

So black people already had the right to marry before the U.S. Supreme Court ruling - they just could not get married with a white person. If a black person did not want to marry another black person but wanted to marry a white person they can choose not to get married at all.

To call someting a basic right and then make unjust exceptions for minority groups is stupid. It's a right, or it's not.

[Drake Tungsten]

That's not much of a right.

It's a hell of a right if you need a green-card.

[Edan]

That's not much of a right.

It's a hell of a right if you need a green-card.

So you think people should get married for the sole purpose of getting a green card?

[Drake Tungsten]

If that's what it takes. Legal immigration.

[MrFun]

Yep, there's no denying that legal immigration is a highly important issue for gay and lesbian immigrants coming into United States.

[Blaupanzer]

Like blacks and whites?

Read some history. The southern U.S. was an anomaly in not allowing miscegenation.

To a high degree, Drake is just baiting Mr Fun, who should not rise to that bait. However, the above statement is absolute nonsense. Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, Islamic states in North Africa and the Middle East, and extensive parts of the Commonwealth, "miscegenation" was either forbidden (by law or religious decree) or highly discouraged (by regulation) from the middle 1850s thru the WW II period.

As to the US, 47 states had miscegenation laws on their books at one time or another. We all discovered that Massachusetts had never repealed its law when their Governor tried to use such a law to block the state court's ruling on gay marraige. Massachusetts is not a southern state. At the turn of the 20th century, New York City saw violent public reaction when one of the local churches elected to ignore the law/regulation. NY is not generally seen as a southern state either.

[Drake Tungsten]

from the middle 1850s thru the WW II period.

1. Wow, 100 years...

2. Where's your evidence? I'll even be nice and accept your goalpost movement from institutionalized racism to mere discouragement.