Obamasexual

Time to revisit Obama's forward-looking stance of the gay community.* Among the litany of other reasons to vote for him is his treatment of gay issues. He supports the repeal of the ridiculous DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) that passed under Bill Clinton's watch. He supports federal civil unions and is comfortable with gay marriage done at the state level. He is at ease both privately and publicly with his gay supporters. Indeed, he rhetorically embraces homosexuals publicly—and often in front of difficult crowds—in ways that few public officials (especially those running for high office) are willing to.

Here's an excerpt from his open letter to the gay community, but it's worth reading the whole thing:

As your President, I will use the bully pulpit to urge states to treat same-sex couples with full equality in their family and adoption laws. I personally believe that civil unions represent the best way to secure that equal treatment. But I also believe that the federal government should not stand in the way of states that want to decide on their own how best to pursue equality for gay and lesbian couples — whether that means a domestic partnership, a civil union, or a civil marriage.

For more on this issue, see this post from Andrew Sullivan.

Choice cut:

The Urgent, Clear Choice For Gay Voters: Obama
This is telling to me:

An interesting moment came when he was asked a question about LGBT rights and delivered an answer that seemed to suit the questioner, listing the various attributes — race, gender, etc. — that shouldn't trigger discrimination, to successive cheers. When he came to saying that gays and lesbians deserve equality, though, the crowd fell silent.

So he took a different tack: "Now I’m a Christian, and I praise Jesus every Sunday," he said, to a sudden wave of noisy applause and cheers.

"I hear people saying things that I don’t think are very Christian with respect to people who are gay and lesbian," he said, and the crowd seemed to come along with him this time.

To hear someone defend gay and lesbian dignity and equality from a Christian perspective and to do so in the context of a largely African-American crowd, is much, much more than any candidate for the presidency has ever done. It's a break through. If it were just words, it would be one thing. But he has now done this repeatedly in front of black crowds, when he didn't have to. And he has put his specific commitments in writing in an open letter.

It's time to be candid about this - because gay voters, in my judgment, could make the difference in Ohio and Texas and Vermont and Rhode Island. There are very large gay communities in Texas' cities, and Ohio has the sixth largest gay community in the country. A plea: Do not sleep-walk into that voting booth with vague good feelings about the Clintons. Walk into that booth with eyes open and see what gay people have in front of them.

Now you may have many reasons not to vote for Obama, and no gay voter should vote on one issue. But solely with respect to gay matters, there is simply no choice here. Obama's positions, candor, courage, generation and religious embrace of us are dispositive.

* On a personal level, I'm a bit...cautiously amazed. By this time in the cycle, my preferred candidates have usually been cast aside and I've been left with whoever remained (a Kerry instead of a Dean, for example). I've never had a candidate that's aligned with me on so many issues who's actually within reach of the White House. Halle-fucking-lujah!

UPDATE: I just read that the Houston LGBT Caucus has endorsed Obama. More here.