June 30, 2009
Column #1,453
Obama's Gay Agenda
By Mike McManus

You have doubtless heard that the President declared June, the month with the most traditional weddings - to be LGBT Pride Month. That's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month. To conservatives, this was horrifying.

However on June 11 Assistant Attorney General Tony West asked a Federal Court in California to dismiss a lawsuit by two gay men who were "married" in California, to declare the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) to be unconstitutional, because it allows states that do not recognize same-sex marriages, to ignore the "marital rights of such couples."  And DOMA also disallowed any federal benefits to same-sex marriages, such as Social Security.

I was encouraged that the Obama Administration filed a 58-page "brief" supporting DOMA, which was passed in 1996 by a Republican Congress and signed by President Clinton, a Democrat. The Justice Department argued that when DOMA was passed, no state had adopted a "newer definition of marriage" and "only a very small minority of States" have done so since.

The Justice Department tartly noted that the plaintiffs (never mentioned by name) "lack standing" to sue since they "nowhere allege that they have actually been denied any rights or benefits" by another state or the Federal Government. 

DOMA defined marriage as "the union of one man and one woman," though Justice conceded a future Congress "may subsequently decide to extend benefits to same-sex marriages." 

       The Administration's stance sparked criticism from LGBT leaders.

Therefore, at the White House this week, President Obama told hundreds of LGBT supporters, "I've called on Congress to repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act to help end discrimination," sparking joyous applause. However, he added, "We have a duty to uphold existing law," a duty that "in no way lessens my commitment to reversing this law."

This was news to me.  During the campaign, Obama told Pastor Rick Warren, "I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. For me, as a Christian, it is also a sacred union."  He even added, "I am not somebody who promotes same-sex marriage."

       Obama was not being honest, but trolling for votes from the large televised debate.

       This column noted that two months earlier, Obama wrote to the Alice V. Toklas Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Democratic Club, opposing Prop 8 that would limit marriage to heterosexuals. And he said he favored the radical stand to repeal DOMA

"I support extending fully equal rights and benefits to same sex couples under both state and federal laws," he wrote.  "That is why I support repealing the Defense of Marriage Act...and passage of laws to protect LGBT Americans from hate crimes and employment discrimination.  And that is why I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or those of other states."

       What's wrong with gay marriage? 

       Consider a decision by the highest court in liberal New York State: "The Legislature could rationally believe that it is better...for children to grow up with both a mother and father.  Intuition and experience suggest that a child benefits from having before his or her eyes, every day, living models of what both a man and a woman are like."

       "By limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples New York is not engaging in sex
discrimination.  The limitation does not put men and women in different classes, and give one class a benefit not given to the other."

       While six states have approved same-sex marriage, 30 states have passed Constitutional Amendments to limit marriage to heterosexual unions.

       California's Supreme Court ruled by one vote that all have a right to "have government sanction all family forms as having equal dignity." Thus, a man might have two or three wives.

       That's one reason that African Americans in California, Obama's most passionate supporters, also voted for Prop 8 to limit marriage to a man and a woman, overturning the Supreme Court decision.

       The U.S. Senate will soon vote on a "hate crimes" bill that could prove disastrous for pastors who preach on Romans 1:27 against "men who abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another."  The House-passed bill says it only authorizes prosecution of those causing "bodily harm."  But since violent crimes are ALREADY illegal, the "hate" label and federal intervention would be based on politically incorrect speech.

What pastors say could land them (or you) in jail.

       Hate crimes could radically impact our freedom of speech and freedom of religion.  The Senate bill should be defeated.

       Obama is endearing himself to gays, but not to the 98 percent of us who are straight.