Obama says marriage a states’ rights issue (rinse, repeat)

I’m not sure why lgbt people are so invested in what Barack Obama says or does in support of us. Reading all the items out there about his reiteration that he thinks marriage equality is up to the states, I just keep wondering why he gets this kind of press about it when he’s clearly a political animal who is not going to change his position. And his idea that marriage is a state issue just makes me want to say three words to the man, “Loving v Virginia.” (If ‘v’ is considered a word.) From Think Progress: President Obama was asked if he believes that civil marriage is a constitutional right during his press conference this morning. Rather than answering that question, Obama reiterated his record on LGBT issues and argued that marriage is best left to the states. What happened in New York “was a good thing,” Obama said. “I think that’s exactly how things should work. I think it’s important for us to work through these issues because each state is going to be different and each community is going to be different”: OBAMA: What we’ve also done is we’ve said that DOMA — the Defense of Marriage Act — is unconstitutional and so we’ve said that we cannot defend the federal government poking its nose into what states are doing and putting our thumb on the scale against same-sex couples. What I’ve seen happen over the last several years and what happened in New York last week, I think was a good thing. Because what you saw was the people of New York having a debate, talking through these issues. It was contentious, it was emotional, but ultimately they made a decision to recognize civil marriages and I think that’s exactly how things should work. I think it’s important for us to work through these issues because each state is going to be different and each community is going to be different.
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