Obama Campaign Weighs in on North Carolina Same-Sex Marriage Ballot Measure
- Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:16pm by
Christopher Santarelli
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Voters in North Carolina will take on LGBT issues May 8 with a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriages and civil unions. Despite having previously claimed to be personally opposed to same-sex marriage, with views on the issue that are still “evolving,” President Barack Obama has come out against the ballot measure within the key November swing state.
“While the president does not weigh in on every single ballot measure in every state, the record is clear that the president has long opposed divisive and discriminatory efforts to deny rights and benefits to same sex couples,” Cameron French, Obama’s campaign spokesman for North Carolina, said in a statement.
“That’s what the North Carolina ballot initiative would do, it would single out and discriminate against committed gay and lesbian couples. And that’s why the president does not support it,” he said.
French’s statement echoes remarks made by Obama spokesman Shin Inouye last September to the Washington Blade, an LGBT-focused newspaper published in the Washington D.C. metro area.
The Charlotte Observer writes that the president’s place in the state matter has the potential to energize the Democratic base in the Tar Heel State, which in 2008 made President Obama the first Democrat to win North Carolina in 32 years.
Gay activist Tom Warshauer, who works for the City of Charlotte, told the Observer that the president’s stance was “great news” – even if the his view of same-sex marriage is still “evolving.”
“It’ll certainly make people less frustrated” with the president on the issue, Warshauer said.
“We’d rather have people be for full equality,” Warshauer said. “But this amendment is writing discrimination into the Constitution … and is just unnecessarily mean-spirited. … And it’s important for young people to hear from the leader of their country that this shouldn’t be happening.”
Others have argued that the president is out of line in weighing in on a state issue.
“I think President Obama has no business inserting himself into the people’s business in North Carolina,” Tami Fitzgerald, chairwoman of Vote for Marriage North Carolina, which supports the amendment, told the Observer. “The people of North Carolina cannot sit by and let marriage as defined as between one man and one woman be destroyed by a handful of political activists or by the president.”
ABC News notes that the president had declined to specifically take a position on same-sex marriage as it was under debate in both New York and Washington. The president has opposed the federal Defense of Marriage Act and opposes a federal marriage amendment to the Constitution. POLITICO’s Alexander Burns writes that the White House’s decision to address the issue in North Carolina may be “a measure of how much Democrats are banking on a changing upper South that endorsing gay rights in North Carolina would be viewed as a politically palatable option.”
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Comments (80)
wntsmallgov
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 12:30amTo use the line of the Progressives: Seperation of Church and State. Marriage is a Religous Ritual and should be taken out of the State side of the Lic. All States need to adobt the Civil Union as law but leave Marriage as a Religous Event. Case Closed.
Report Post »B_rad
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 1:07amYup. There is absolutely no need to redefine the religious definition of the word. Allow any two consenting adults to enter into any legal agreement they wish, and allow churches, and their congregations to marry, or not, anyone they see fit. It is not the place of the state to determine which adults can legally merge, and which cannot. One set of beliefs, even if they are in the majority, has no business dictating who gets legal protections from a contract. That is kinda the whole point to our constitutional republican form of government. Further, there is absolutely no public good served by denying SS couples from benefiting from the same protections marriage offers to straight people. Protect rights, don’t impose values.
Report Post »wntsmallgov
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 1:09amI wanted it to be clear to the liberals, which means stating it several times in diffrent ways. Just like the president speaks down and lies to the American People.
Report Post »asybot12
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 1:34amI kinda like the ss couple thing I do hope that the Stalinist, Maoists. Hitlers Castro Che, what is the slobs name in Venezuela name? (whose fri..n daughter waves US$$ in the face of their own people!). and any socialist doctrines advocates first uses YOU to get into power you know the equal rights thing?. But please boys and boys, girls and girls you will be the next to go. After the Jewish people, the religious groups and then any one else standing up for real freedom. You are just like the OWS useful idiots
Report Post »asybot12
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 1:37amplease Blaze remove that picture it just made a mess of my key board.
Report Post »Chet Hempstead
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 3:25amReligion doesn’t own the word marriage. Government officials have been issuing marriage licenses and performing weddings for centuries and nobody ever had a problem with it until a couple of years ago. If it was a strictly religious matter, we would have had gay marriage a long time ago. There must be a hundred religious sects in this country, and there are bound to be a few that would agree to marry same sex couples.
Report Post »Boulderite
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 12:08amI just want him to stay out of state politics. States should be able to do whatever the people of that state want to do without the president getting involved no matter what the issue. Hands off.
Report Post »B_rad
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 1:10amI’m hoping that, come January, he’ll be out of all politics, state AND federal. Let’s pray that happens.
Report Post »Chet Hempstead
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 3:10amHe is keeping his hands off. He’s just giving an opinion just like you and me and everyone here, as is our right as citizens whether the subject that we’re opining on is any of our business or not. Are you from North Carolina? I assume you aren’t if Boulderite is a reference to where you live and not what you live under.
Report Post »Git-R-Done
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 4:52pmChet – You lefties would whine about how Santorum needs to stay out of the affairs of North Carolina if he came out and said that he supports the same sex marriage ban ballot in North Carolina, hypocrite.
Report Post »Chet Hempstead
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 9:22pmGit-R-Done
Report Post »If I am a hypocrite because I am a liberal and you are sure that all of us are the same and that at least one of us would say about something hypocritical about a hypothetical situation that you imagine, then that makes you as hypocritical as the most hypocritical statement ever made by anyone on the right, whether you would have actually said the same thing or not.
B_rad
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 12:42amChet, the president is not just any normal citizen, and his opinions are not relevant to the internal workings of any of the states. His campaign makes statements for a reason. It’s not as if he were overheard at a baseball game making a private comment. State’s rights are sacrosanct, or at least they used to be.
That said, I can‘t imagine how anyone thinks it’s okay for the majority to tell the minority they can’t do a thing that has no bearing on the public or on the individuals that make up the majority, because the majority believes it’s wrong. That is precisely why we are a constitutional republic, NOT a democracy. Democracy is two cats and a mouse deciding what’s for dinner.
Protect rights, don’t impose values.
Report Post »Rainbowelp
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 11:43pmMost of these posts are racist, homophobic and just outright lies.
Those that hold marriage as a sacred thing need to reflect on the current divorce rate after they go to any church to get a marriage license.
Those that mock the Presidents appearance, color or sexuality need to go look in a mirror and think about their Karma. Which is far, far uglier.
The rest are the result of either inbreeding or just pure unadulterated stupidity.
lukerw
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 11:46pmYour Opinion… is noted!
Report Post »wntsmallgov
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 12:34amno diffrent than a lot of the progressive posts on things.
Report Post »COFemale
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 12:35amAh, they go to the government office for a marriage license not a church.
And who appointed you as top purveyor of truth? I don’t recall God making that appointment. Therefore your opinion holds no water with this group.
Who has mocked his color? I don’t recall anyone on here mocking his color, his sexuality or appearance. Are you saying he is gay and we just don’t know it? That might be news to Michelle, Sasha and Malia.
I don’t think anyone here is afraid of gays. I think some people here believe that marriage should between a man and a woman. I mean it has been that way since the beginning of time. Why change now. If you think two men or two women boinking is normal, then I’d hate to see your abnormal. I don’t hate gays, I just don’t like there living arrangements. They don’t have to like mine either.
You think that everyone should think like you, because in your mind, you are the all knowing and what is right for the world. I call people like you ARROGANT and CLUELESS. We can disagree on topics and how things should be in the world; it does not mean we hate each other. Well I can’t speak for you, but I don’t hate you. I just think you are misguided in your thinking.
Report Post »NOTYERHUCKLEBERRY
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 1:00amRAINBOW–You are just about the most clueless bozo/bozoette out there. Who said anything about his race or sexual orientation?
Report Post »I could give a crap about your boinking someone of your same sex, just don’t expect me to wildly accept it.
Civil unions? I’ll go for that. You might look into the negations of those before you spout your mouth off though.
Marriage on the other hand, is defined by God as between a man and a woman. You can change the laws of man, but you can’t change the laws of God.
Chuck Stein
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 1:19amRainbowelp: I haven’t seen you post before, so I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you are not merely a troll. The dissonance of your post (arrogating to yourself the moral high ground but then referring to “inbreeding or just pure unadulterated stupidity”), however, gives me considerable doubt as to your sincerity. Be that as it may, your assumption that the incidence of divorce denies marriage of its “sacred” aspect is misplaced. All that divorce shows is that some who get married are fallible. The sacred aspect of marriage is not in the cases where it fails, but in the cases where it succeeds. In particular, marriage is for bringing children into the world and for rearing them to have the most happiness possible. It is regarding that purpose (and not whether it is deemed “sacred” by any person or group) that the state has an interest in marriage. Personally, I am a bit leery of constitutional amendments mandating “One man, one woman” limitations on marriage — such limitations are better served by statutes. The reason that such constitutional amendments are appropriate (I have voted for one), however, is the over-reaching by state supreme courts which are often eager to overturn the will of the people in this matter.
Report Post »Chuck Stein
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 1:24amOops, looks like I wasted time on a troll — “Rainbowelp” only has one post in his/her profile and the account was established on March 18, 2012. I should look at that stuff BEFORE I reply to an insipid post.
Report Post »KangarooJack
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 11:37pmObama is the Geicko Gecko….always changing his “spots” to “fit” the situation…all the more to sign up for HIS insurance…
funny though, if you ACTUALLY get into a wreck and you call the phone #????
You get some guy called Jamal in India.
Report Post »biernd
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 11:20pmExplain how not allowing same sex marriage is dicriminating. I can’t marry a guy either. It’s the same law for everybody. If civil unions give them all the legal claims they’re looking for, why do the need the sanctity of marriage? Sorry Adam and Steve, you just can’t do it……get over it.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 11:37pmIf there were… No Financial Considerations… Nor Entitlements… Government would not be involved in Marriage.
Report Post »Git-R-Done
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 3:50amAnd siblings can’t marry each other nor can anybody else marry more than one person at a time. So I’m not feeling any sympathy for the same sex marriage people.
Report Post »nighttrainno9
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 11:17pmNO. 1 We don’t obama or his thoughts in NC. NO. 2 We damn
Report Post »sure don’t need same sex marridge in NC. I’m tired of homosexuals
trying to push their sin down our throats. The liberals that
moved here from the northeast have damn near ruined this
state. Raleigh and Charlotte are cesspools of liberals.
Seabass82
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 8:58amwell said….
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 11:16pmThe Mud Mixer… is still Evolving… what it will Finally Produce!
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 11:44pmIn the Good Ole Days… Leaders… stated the problem at hand… and stated their Solution. Now, alike a Physics Theory… analysis and results seem to evolve… producing whatever BS the Professional Peers Accept as the Current Truth!
Report Post »bpodlesnik
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 11:12pmObama is really targeting North Carolina for some reason. Rush was talking about this the other day and was making some interesting points. One was about a certain group of 45,000 people who could swing towards Romney, but were previously Democrats. Obama is campaigning hard there for some reason or another. Something else I noticed, is Obama has North Carolina winning the basketball tournament as well.
Report Post »vtxphantom
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:54pmIt is none of obama business what NC does. He should keep his pointy little beak of states business.
Report Post »Elena2010
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 11:01pmNo — he makes too great a mess when he thinks federally. Let the man yap all abt state affairs until he causes the states to puke on his shoes!
Report Post »CatB
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 11:02pmMy first thought also .. he has his NOSE in EVERYTHING .. and all he does is screw everything UP!
Report Post »Smokey_Bojangles
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 11:14pmAnd as President what has Obama done for gay Marriage? (Other than the rumors of his habits) NC already has laws outlawing gay marriage.We do not need Government messing up a perfectly good system and State Constitution.Using the “Referendum” method I want a chance to vote against Mormons,Environmentalist,Jehovah’s Witnesses,People who go door to door asking me to go to their church instead of my own on a Saturday Morning at 9am,Vegans,Children in Restaurants, Cell Phones in Public,Skittles,Rap Music,Loud Gospel Music,ALL Country Music, FOX’s animation Sunday…………………
Report Post »neverending
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 11:22pmAnd his big floppy ears!
Report Post »mgcre
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:54pmThey asked than Texas Gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman his thoughts on same-sex marriage. His response: “I think everyone has the right to be miserable.” Classic response!
Report Post »jailpolice
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:53pmObama says , I am a “Christian” and I am for homosexual marriage. gee , wonder why people do not believe he is Christian. He is such a wonderful man.
Report Post »Smokey_Bojangles
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 11:16pmWould be one thing if he said he was not against **** Marriage.Being a Supporter of it means he condones it.There is a Difference. I am Not against children in restaurants that want to allow them,but I am against children in most restaurants.That is what Fast Food is for.
Report Post »FreedomWitness
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:53pmObama has come out against this because he has had homosexual sex himself with FRANK MARSHALL DAVIS.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 11:57pmInteresting hyopthesis. We still know very little about Obama…. alike whom did he date before Chicago?
Report Post »Itsjusttim
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:39pmMarriage is just a word and that’s all. Ha, let them think they are married and their souls labor pains will be multiplied by 1000.
Report Post »Itsjusttim
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:46pmSeriously though, let them be married and they will see they feel no different, but will be as fuel to the sea of discontent that rages within them.
Report Post »Itsjusttim
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:49pmAnd they have grand expectations in marriage they will not find, and their marriages will crumble into ashes, and they will cheat and leave each other for another like nothing you have ever seen before.
Report Post »Exrepublisheep
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:54pmCivil unions? Yes, between consenting adults. Forcing a religion to marry gays? Absolutely not.
Report Post »1casawizard
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:38pmNorth Carolina politics is changing but not as far as letting activist agenda into the mix. There are two North Carolinians. those in Charlotte and those in the rest of the state. The rest of the state will get to the polls and decide.
Report Post »Smokey_Bojangles
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 11:17pmYou forgot the Commies in Chapel Hill.
Report Post »1casawizard
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 11:59pm@SMOKEY. My bad. My corn likker had me fogged.
Report Post »GoodStuff
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:38pmObama won’t win NC. I’m not even sure he won it in 2008. And, I know for sure that he didn’t win Indiana.
NC, Indiana, Virginia and Florida should all easily go back to the GOP column this election. OH, PA, WI, CO, NV, IA, NH, NM are gonna take some work and some serious ground game.
Report Post »jonboy1903
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 11:15pmObama and Bev Purdue, two failed Democrat Politicians, out of touch with reality, over-their-heads, without constraints that normal and rational people possess. Purdue hollers about the tragedy of our state’s educational budgetary shortfalls, even she is the one who robbed the Educational Lottery for money to grease palms and finish favored Road Projects. Bev sees the writing on the wall and so soon will Obama. OMG–2012. OBAMA MUST GO!
Report Post »Smokey_Bojangles
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 12:36amI’m just glad the crazy lady aint running again. Still can not find anyone who admits that they voted for her…Hmmmmm.
Report Post »Chet Hempstead
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 3:49amWhat makes you think that Obama didn’t win Indiana? As I remember he was trailing slightly in that state all night until the last few precincts reported, putting him over the top in that state and the entire country. That only seems suspicious to people who never bothered to look at a map and see that the final results came from the area that includes the city of Fort Wayne, which happens to be where most of the state’s black people live. So, it seems likely that there might have been a little stage management, results delayed for dramatic effect, but not that there was any fraud or fixing involved.
Report Post »Itsjusttim
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:35pmPeople assume the future belongs to them, but it doesn’t, and this is why the world is in this pickle.
Report Post »jcizarter
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:34pmhttp://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/nice-weather-making-obama-little-nervous_633977.html
Tyler Perry hosting Obama campaign…
Report Post »COFemale
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 12:40amyeah, He just got crossed off my Christmas card list.
Report Post »spirited
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:32pmThe President must be thinking of his children; not wanting them to be “punished” …and all.
>It’s no fluke
Report Post »discus02
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:31pmFrankly Obama I frankly don’t care what you think. Devisive is your middle name. Frankly what does the Black part of Obama think of the White part. This would be a very interesting conversation!
Report Post »Chet Hempstead
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 5:33amDevisive isn’t even a word, let alone his middle name. If you divide, you’re divisive.
Report Post »shorthanded12
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:28pmHmmmm read between the lines folks, say NC voters, Vote to ban same sex marriages you can rest assure between May 8th and all time forward Eric The Coward Holder will have his hinchman breathing down North Carolinas neck. and finding sum liberal azz judge that will block the State from enacting the law thus costing the Taxpayers in NC a boat load of money fighting this matter in court. Its a no brainer America knows how the Crime Inc operate and function.
Report Post »DiamondDog
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:28pmHopefully, the DNC will boycott North Carolina and move the convention to Vermont.
Report Post »football lady
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:28pmLiar in Chief changes with the wind.
Report Post »Manofmystery
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:28pmHow can you be “for” something, and “against” it at the same time?
Report Post »RepubliCorp
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:38pmask John Kerry
Report Post »GoodStuff
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:39pmHe’s Obama, he can do anything he wants and the palace guards in the media will protect him at all costs.
Report Post »Chet Hempstead
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 3:40amYou can be against same-sex marriage, but for domestic partnerships that would grant same-sex couples most or all of the same legal rights. Whether that’s a reasonable position or a wishy washy cop-out, it is the position of a lot of people in this country, and for anyone who feels that way this measure would go way too far.
Report Post »Laus Deo
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:25pmWill the poofers, munchers, and trans-weirdos stop once they’ve achieved what they call “equality?” I predict they will not.
Report Post »FreedomWitness
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:54pmIt’s POOFTERS, not poofers. Although in the singular is is POOF.
Report Post »Itsjusttim
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:21pmThere is a monkey in Africa gradually going extinct because it is addicted to sex.
Report Post »Maji
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:49pmThere is one in the white house too
Report Post »He’ screwing America!!
Elena2010
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 11:04pmActually, the bonobos use sex to settle “arguments.” They are not sex addicts. The editor used that headline to get you to read the article.
Report Post »Chet Hempstead
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 3:29amBonobos aren’t gradually going extinct because of their sexual behavior. They’re rapidly going extinct for the usual reasons – expanding human population is destroying their habitat and people are hunting them illegally.
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