What big dummy said and did to get votes
Twenty four hours later, the court was back at it -- legalizing same sex marriage nationwide. Obama was a late-arriver on the issue, without question. He supported only civil unions during his 2008 campaign and it wasn't until May 2012 -- as his race for reelection neared -- that Obama finally came out in support of gay marriage.
But even prior to Obama's own public statement in support of same-sex marriage, his administration was taking actions that led to Friday's ruling. In 2011, the Justice Department announced it would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act; in June 2013, the Court struck DOMA -- a decision that set things in motion for Friday's ruling.
And Obama carved out time in his second inaugural address to express his belief that allowing gays and lesbians to marry was part of the greater American movement to freedom and equality. "Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well," he said that day.
On Friday, in remarks delivered after the marriage ruling, Obama returned to that theme. "Today we can say, in no uncertain terms, that we have made our union a little more perfect," Obama declared.
Like most of us from cultures with in build homophobia ( in our ignorance we ignored that these people exist, has existed and will continue to exist and we even knew some of them and they were family we loved) one has to grow into the idea, the sound idea, that we cannot deny that which should be a natural right. Gay people, minus their sexuality, are humans who possess all that we take for granted and would die to protect. They are not going to go away if we ignore them or marginalize them.
Good societies recognize who they are and see to it what is natural to them in terms of rights are protected. Inheritance rights, the right to make decisions for ones significant other when they cannot or unable to do so, the rights to access government services etc are not reliant on ones religious orientation.
Religious people take it for granted that their religion does not intervene as a basis for denial of rights. Even Satanists are protected! In many nations and historically in the west, religion was one of those basis for denying rights. We are over that. We should be over this and I am glad we are.
By the way, what makes Obama a dummy? What metric are using to make that call? He has made it to the presidency of the greatest nation on the planet and contrary to any prevailing notions, fools do not get that far.