THE AUDACITY OF AUDACITY

Presidential contender Barack Obama is the product of an interracial marriage.

Besides possibly making him the first president of African American descent, it is significant because of his position on gay marriage.

As a supporter of his campaign, financial and otherwise, I am dismayed at his opposition to gay marriage.

Candidate Obama prefers instead to support “civil unions” for gay couples.

When Obama’s parents were married in the early 1960’s, interracial marriage was illegal in almost half the states and violence directed against interracial couples was not uncommon. Obama’s parents were wise to meet and become a couple in the progressive state of Hawaii, far removed from the virulent racism of many mainland states.

As interracial marriage was becoming fully legal during the 1960’s, there was no talk of a compromise “civil union” category for interracial couples. The civil rights struggle sought the end to all vestiges of “second class citizenship”. The idiocy of devising a face-saving term other than “marriage” for interracial couples simply to assuage the sensibilities of unrepentant racists, was clear to all normal people.

Over forty years later every serious presidential candidate remains publicly against gay marriage, not because they necessarily oppose it, but because they believe supporting it makes them unelectable. We who supported John Kerry in 2004 understood and accepted his lying when he uttered his opposition to gay marriage in his futile attempt to become president.

Because of his unique origins, it is tougher to accept Obama’s fib when he offers that position. Would his parents have accepted merely a “civil union” license when they were tying the knot. Would Obama be proud to talk about when his parents were “civil-unioned”? Probably not.

Maybe its time for a candidate with so much hope and positivism to have the audacity to break one of the last taboos in American politics. If he does, he will be standing up for “Truth, Justice, and the American Way”. That may not make him Superman, but it will make him a super man.

Originally published in Glen Ellyn News, September 5, 2007