By Jonathan Miller, on Mon May 14, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
President Obama is not the only politician to change his public position on gay marriage. One year ago last week, I came out for marriage equality.
In my inaugural column for The Huffington Post, I revealed that I had always supported marriage equality, but that it was impossible to advocate for the cause and remain a viable statewide politician in my Bible Belt state.
Announcing my support for gay marriage was one of the proudest moments of my political recovery.
Last week, I celebrated my anniversary with a new column at The Huffington Post. Here’s an excerpt:
The President’s announcement is indeed the tipping point for the most important civil rights cause in a generation.
Because Obama made his voice heard, many other Americans will feel more comfortable in proclaiming their support for marriage equality. Still others will take another close look at the issue. When they understand that most of the counter-arguments are simply illogical — gay marriage doesn’t threaten traditional marriage; it doesn’t lead to bigamy and bestiality; it doesn’t undermine family values — they will join our cause as well.
And when support for marriage equality grows from a small majority today to an overwhelming majority in the coming months, there will be no stopping the momentum in state legislatures across the country into making marriage equality a reality for all Americans.
In the 24 hours since the President’s announcement, I’ve already been surprised by some who’ve joined the gay marriage bandwagon. While I knew that Dick Cheney was on board, I had no idea about Bush speechwriter David Frum, or even that my friend, fellow No Labels co-founder, and Bush-Cheney campaign manager Mark McKinnon was a marriage equality advocate. Mazel Tov, Mark!
And today, I also ask you to join me. If you are so inclined, in the comments section below, please indicate your support for marriage equality. And then using all of your social media tools — Facebook, Twitter, Google +, email, etc., please share your message with the world.
Harvey Milk, perhaps history’s most influential gay rights advocate, was right: When more gays and lesbians came out of the closet — and the rest of us began to realize that friends and even loved ones were gay; that gay men and women too can do “heroic things” — the stigma wore off, and it became politically and personally unacceptable to preach gay hatred.
Similarly, when more people discover that those they respect support gay marriage, it will help lead us on a path to full equality.
Now that the President is on board, I urge you to join me today. Together, we can make a real difference.
The most eloquent, poignant argument I ever heard against same-sex marriage came from an African American woman in her late fifties who organized youth groups at a black mega-church in the South.
I can’t quote her verbatim but it went something like this: “in the black community, gay marriage is a source of worry because we struggle so hard, and against so many cultural forces, to make even conventional marriages work. We don’t buy into officially recognized alternative relationships because we can’t even win the battle to make the standard kind of marriage look appealing: not when our boys want the music video lifestyle—a different girl at every stanza in the song—our girls get degrees and can’t find men who can support them; and our teenagers think a baby is what happens when you become a woman or a man. Yet another alternative to men and women building families together? That’s a luxury we can’t afford.”
There’s a heap of generalization there, and reasonable minds may or may not agree. In fact, I’ve heard more than a few blacks argue that legal marriages between black homosexuals beats the closets in the black community, which often have the unfair, reverse effect of making any heterosexual black man who stays single look suspect.
But the woman I mention was utterly free of malice and not at all reliant on Old Testament allusions to make her case. If you think she is in spite of that a beacon of intolerance, you’ve just indicted a thoughtful representation of about 60 percent of the African American community.
The media-filtered reaction to President Obama’s endorsement of gay marriage has been predictable: an undercurrent of exaltation in the newsrooms that have long ceased to think of homosexuality as anything but another form of freedom; cherry-picked evangelical leaders who fit that same media’s expectations of what social conservatism looks and sounds like. To be sure, the networks and cable have brought forth their share of high profile African American ministers and Catholic bishops, but they aren’t the woman in that southern church running a youth group, trying to grapple with how social change shapes fatherless neighborhoods: the preachers and clerics are speaking in the accents of scripture and biblical text, which most Americans are in the custom of preaching not practicing.
Read the rest of… Artur Davis: The Gay Marriage Aftermath
By Michael Steele, on Mon May 14, 2012 at 9:00 AM ET
Evolution is a funny thing. It takes time; things change but ultimately wind up in the right place. So, when President Obama demurred in the early days of his administration that his views on gay marriage were still “evolving,” most of us gave the president a respectful amount of space to work it out. Given the many social, political and personal realities (and implications) attached to the issue of gay marriage, everyone, including the president should be allowed to wind up in the right place for them on this issue.
In what appeared to be a hastily arranged interview with ABC News, the president finally announced his personal views on gay marriage stating “at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me, personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.” Indeed, many of the president’s allies spoke of his “courage” in doing so — never mind the president had just announced a major reversal in his evolution.
Of course, Mr. Obama has been evolving on this issue for some time. In 1996, as a candidate for the state Senate in Illinois, Mr. Obama stated “unequivocal” support for same-sex marriage but by the time he spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 he had evolved against same sex marriage because as “such arrangements contravened his religious faith.” But then in 2008 there was further evolution on this issue when the president said he supported civil unions but still opposed same-sex marriage.
Read the rest of… Michael Steele: Obama Finally Jumps the Broom on Gay Marriage
By Jonathan Miller, on Fri May 11, 2012 at 9:30 AM ET
One year ago today, I came out for gay marriage.
In my inaugural column for The Huffington Post, I revealed that I had always supported marriage equality, but that it was impossible to advocate for the cause and remain a viable statewide politician in my Bible Belt state.
Announcing my support for gay marriage was one of the proudest moments of my political recovery.
Today, I celebrate my anniversary with a new column at The Huffington Post. Here’s an excerpt:
The President’s announcement is indeed the tipping point for the most important civil rights cause in a generation.
Because Obama made his voice heard, many other Americans will feel more comfortable in proclaiming their support for marriage equality. Still others will take another close look at the issue. When they understand that most of the counter-arguments are simply illogical — gay marriage doesn’t threaten traditional marriage; it doesn’t lead to bigamy and bestiality; it doesn’t undermine family values — they will join our cause as well.
And when support for marriage equality grows from a small majority today to an overwhelming majority in the coming months, there will be no stopping the momentum in state legislatures across the country into making marriage equality a reality for all Americans.
In the 24 hours since the President’s announcement, I’ve already been surprised by some who’ve joined the gay marriage bandwagon. While I knew that Dick Cheney was on board, I had no idea about Bush speechwriter David Frum, or even that my friend, fellow No Labels co-founder, and Bush-Cheney campaign manager Mark McKinnon was a marriage equality advocate. Mazel Tov, Mark!
And today, I also ask you to join me. If you are so inclined, in the comments section below, please indicate your support for marriage equality. And then using all of your social media tools — Facebook, Twitter, Google +, email, etc., please share your message with the world.
Harvey Milk, perhaps history’s most influential gay rights advocate, was right: When more gays and lesbians came out of the closet — and the rest of us began to realize that friends and even loved ones were gay; that gay men and women too can do “heroic things” — the stigma wore off, and it became politically and personally unacceptable to preach gay hatred.
Similarly, when more people discover that those they respect support gay marriage, it will help lead us on a path to full equality.
Now that the President is on board, I urge you to join me today. Together, we can make a real difference.
By Jonathan Miller, on Mon May 7, 2012 at 5:00 PM ET
Today marks the fifth anniversary of the best political decision I ever made — picking up my hat from the ring, withdrawing from the Kentucky gubernatorial primary, and endorsing Steve Beshear.
Beshear went on to win landslide primary and general election victories, and I went on to enjoy my family, happiness, and peace.
And when I look back, it’s only with fondness; knowing that while I enjoyed the journey, the path ahead is much brighter.
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue May 1, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Great moments in family conversations.
My wife, my son (a high school senior) and I went out for dinner last night.
As is often is the case, my son and wife were having a conversation and I felt like a 6th man on the bench who may get playing time if either began to tire.
My son was excitedly—yet matter-of-factly—explaining that he was learning in school about anthropology and that polygamy was superior to monogamy as a societal partnering arrangement.
My wife, Rebecca, excitedly—yet matter-of-factly (and a little defensively)—was willing to argue for monogamy. I sat entranced though pretending to be more interested in picking through my salad.
When my son couldn’t think of the word for women having multiple husbands, I chimed in from the bench, “polyandry.”
Although neither side was tiring, I was about to get some playing time. “So, John, what do you think?” my beloved wife, Rebecca, queried with that tone that simultaneously reminded me both of the first time I heard the term “united front” and the first time I slept on the couch.
I glanced at my son who I’ve played enough basketball with to develop head signals. Although we never had a head signal for an alley-oop dunk (since neither of us can dunk), the look he gave me would have been it.
He was saying to me, “C’mon dad, I got your back. Let’s have some fun with mom.” It was a touching father-son moment but it was time for me to choose a side.
Of course, I believe in monogamy. Always have and always will. But that wasn’t the decision I was faced with.
The decision was, At what point do you make peace with the fact—even if it’s just for fun—that you will never, ever make an alley-oop dunk in life?
Walking through the metal detector at the Yom Ha’Atzmaut celebration, I thought to myself, “Funny how just a few years ago, we never would have experienced this.” My children, 5, 7, and 9 years old, see security all the time. All our synagogue doors and Jewish agency doors are locked. You need to buzz and state your name to the camera, before you are allowed entrance. This is the only world my children will ever know.
I remember when synagogue was a safe place. I never worried about anyone bringing in a gun or explosives. I never heard the words “terrorist attack,” unless of course, it pertained to Israel. But, not in this country. Not in my home. Not in my synagogue, my school, nowhere within the community I knew. All my children will ever know, is that we need a police presence to “make sure everything is ok and that everyone is safe.”
At least, that is what I tell them. I don’t tell them about the ignorant people who hate us simply because we are Jewish. I don’t tell them about those who distort their own religious beliefs in an effort to destroy others who aren’t like them. I don’t tell them about the evil that persists in the world. I only tell them that “we are safe.” Of course, safety is relative.
They have asked me, “Why is our country at war?” “Who was Osama bin Laden?” “Why do they hate us?” I do not lie to them. I answer in age-appropriate ways, sharing just enough to satisfy their need to know. What can I really say other than, “There is no need to worry.” And, yet, I do tell them to be cautious of strangers and not to leave their brothers alone when they visit a public restroom or run with their friends in the neighborhood. I walk that fine line, trying to prepare them for the realities of life without terrifying them. But, we can’t be prepared for everything.
I know we all experience tragedy. For me, it was losing my mother to cancer way before her time. And then following her death, my father was so terrified of being alone that he made unwise, disturbing choices that separated him from his family, resulting in my losing him, too. A father I was once very close to. It is difficult learning to mourn a father who is still living.
I know that everyone’s life experiences are different. They challenge us, they strengthen us. They shape who we are and who we will become. For my children, it will be no different. Nor do I want to protect them from that journey. I have hope and faith that my husband and I are building a healthy foundation upon which they will make their choices and live their lives. And, yet, I can’t help but worry about the tragedies they will face and hope that it will not tarnish them, nor spoil them to the beauty in the world.
I think about my children’s future. Their children’s future. And, I’m scared. I worry. What will their world look like? Will it be safer than yesterday, or worse than today? I fear for the state of the world, and I’m concerned for my children’s personal well-being.
Only one thing is certain. All my children will ever know is that I love them. They are my priority. In a world with such uncertainty, this one thing is certain. It is everlasting. I tell them that my number one job, my privilege, is to take care of them and keep them safe. God willing, I will succeed. God willing, we will all succeed in making tomorrow better, and safer than today.
By Jonathan Miller, on Fri Apr 27, 2012 at 1:30 PM ET
Last week’s we featured a piece by our newest Friend of RP, John Y. Brown, IV (son of contributing RP John Y. Brown, III) in which the 18-year-old Brown announced that he was breaking with family tradition to be a Republican.
We never could have imagined how popular the piece would be — but at 5,000 readers and growing, it is the most popular piece this blog has ever published that didn’t discuss prison sex.
Well, another 18-year-old Kentuckian registered to vote today. My daughter, Emily. And I’m proud to say that she registered as a Democrat. Woot!
Unfortunately her father embarrassed the family name by taking her picture in the County Clerk’s office. Oh well.
