Obama Rejects Gay Marriage Because Of His Religion; McCain Rejects Gay Marriage On "GP"
Clay
By Patrick Healy
November 1, 2008
Several gay friends and wealthy gay donors to Senator Barack Obama
have asked him over the years why, as a matter of logic and fairness,
he opposes same-sex marriage even though he has condemned old
miscegenation laws that would have barred his black father from
marrying his white mother.
The difference, Mr. Obama has told them, is religion.
As a Christian — he is a member of the United Church of Christ — Mr.
Obama believes that marriage is a sacred union, a blessing from God,
and one that is intended for a man and a woman exclusively, according
to these supporters and Obama campaign advisers. While he does not
favor laws that ban same-sex marriage, and has said he is “open to the
possibility” that his views may be “misguided,” he does not support it
and is not inclined to fight for it, his advisers say.
Senator John McCain also opposes same-sex marriage, but unlike Mr.
Obama’s, his position is influenced by generational and cultural
experiences rather than a religious conviction, McCain advisers say.
But Mr. McCain, reflecting his strongly held views on federalism, has
also broken with many Republican senators and joined Mr. Obama and
most Democrats to oppose amending the United States Constitution to
ban same-sex marriage, arguing that the issue should be left to the
states to decide.
The candidates have very different positions, though, when it comes to
the state level. Mr. Obama opposes amending state constitutions to
define marriage as a heterosexual institution, describing such
proposals as discriminatory. Mr. McCain, however, has been active in
such efforts: On the most expensive and heated battle to ban same-sex
marriage this year, a proposed constitutional amendment in California
known as Proposition 8, he has endorsed the measure and sharply
criticized a State Supreme Court ruling that granted same-sex couples
the right to marry.
Mr. Obama has spoken out against Proposition 8, and opponents of the
measure hope that a huge Democratic turnout in California on Nov. 4 —
and, possibly, depressed turnout among conservatives — will help
defeat it. At the same time, some Democrats say that if many socially
conservative blacks and Hispanics turn out to support Mr. Obama, but
oppose same-sex marriage, the amendment’s chances for passage could
improve.
While same-sex marriage is not expected to play a consequential role
in the elections on Tuesday — unlike in 2004, when a proposed ban in
Ohio was widely seen as hurting the Democratic presidential nominee
that year, Senator John Kerry — passions remain high for voters on
both sides. Some gay Democrats had hoped, in particular, that Mr.
Obama would extend his message of unity and tolerance to their fight
on the issue.
“Barack is an intellectual guy, and I know he has been thinking
through his position on gay marriage, and what is fair for all
people,” said Michael Bauer, an openly gay fund-raiser for Mr. Obama
and an adviser to his campaign on gay issues. “But he is just not
there with us on this issue.”
Some gay allies of Mr. Obama thought, during a televised Democratic
forum in Los Angeles in August 2007, that he might come out in favor
of same-sex marriage, after he was asked if his position supporting
civil unions but not same-sex marriage was tantamount to “separate but
equal.”
“Look, when my parents got married in 1961, it would have been illegal
for them to be married in a number of states in the South,” Mr. Obama
said. “So, obviously, this is something that I understand intimately.
It’s something that I care about.”
At that point, he veered onto legal rights, saying that — both in 1961
and today — it was more important to fight for nondiscrimination laws
and employment protections than for marriage.
Mr. Obama has spoken only occasionally about his religious beliefs
influencing his views on same-sex marriage, and he has indicated that
he is wary of linking his religion to policy decisions.
“I’m a Christian,” Mr. Obama said on a radio program in his 2004 race
for Senate. “And so, although I try not to have my religious beliefs
dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do believe
that tradition, and my religious beliefs say that marriage is
something sanctified between a man and a woman.”
In one of his books, “The Audacity of Hope,” however, Mr. Obama
describes a conversation with a lesbian supporter who became upset
when he cited his religious views to explain his opposition.
“She felt that by bringing religion into the equation, I was
suggesting that she, and others like her, were somehow bad people,” he
wrote. “I felt bad, and told her so in a return call. As I spoke to
her, I was reminded that no matter how much Christians who oppose
homosexuality may claim that they hate the sin but love the sinner,
such a judgment inflicts pain on good people.”
“And I was reminded,” Mr. Obama added, “that it is my obligation, not
only as an elected official in a pluralistic society but also as a
Christian, to remain open to the possibility that my unwillingness to
support gay marriage is misguided, just as I cannot claim
infallibility in my support of abortion rights.”
Advisers to Mr. McCain, meanwhile, say that he is not especially
fervent on the issue — he simply believes that marriage has always
been between a man and a woman, and that this is a culturally accepted
norm that he sees no need to dispute.
Mr. McCain discussed his views with the openly gay entertainer Ellen
DeGeneres in an appearance on her television talk show in May.
The California Supreme Court had just cleared the way for same-sex
marriage, and Ms. DeGeneres had announced on her program that she
planned to marry her longtime girlfriend. “We are all the same people,
all of us — you’re no different than I am,” Ms. DeGeneres told Mr.
McCain as they sat next to each other in plush chairs. “Our love is
the same.”
Mr. McCain called her comments “very eloquent” and added: “We just
have a disagreement. And I, along with many, many others, wish you
every happiness.”
Ms. DeGeneres said: “So, you’ll walk me down the aisle? Is that what
you’re saying?”
Mr. McCain replied, “Touché.”
As a matter of policy, Mr. McCain approaches same-sex marriage from
his strong federalist viewpoint. He was one of seven Republican
senators to vote in June 2006 against a proposed federal amendment
banning such marriages, saying it was an issue for the states. That
same year, he also worked to try to amend Arizona’s Constitution to
define marriage as between a man and a woman. That amendment failed —
the first rejection in 28 statewide votes on similar measures since
1998; a new effort is on the ballot next week in Arizona, and Mr.
McCain has endorsed it.
“He is a true federalist, seeing no need for the federal government to
dictate laws on who can marry who,” said Jim Kolbe, a former
Republican congressman from Arizona and a friend of Mr. McCain’s, and
who is openly gay.
“As a personal matter, I think this is entirely a generational and
cultural thing for him — he just doesn’t see a need for gay marriage,”
Mr. Kolbe said. “I just think gay marriage is not part of the world
and background that he comes from.”
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