Reaction to Obama coming out in favor of marriage equality

This has been an eventful week in the struggle for marriage equality and against homophobia, something I blog about irregularly, but I have written about it here, here, here, here, and here.* As I've written before, "Remember, the social component of sustainability is about promoting a just society. So is the movement described above." I'm sure I'll be blogging about it and other social justice issues between now and the election.

Enough intro. Time to move on to the content.

WOOD-TV has a series of videos detailing the reaction, beginning with the station's report on President Obama's announcement. The segment references the vote against marriage equality in North Carolina.



He said that he supports gay marriage in an interview with ABC.

Now, two videos showing reactions. First, a couple hoping that action follows Obama's words.




That was the pro-Obama reaction. Now a broader spectrum of comments.




WOOD-TV wasn't alone in giving their opinions. WXYZ joined in, too.


 Reaction to President's support of gay marriage

As for an educated opinion, I'll let Indiana University's expert on the subject, who I quoted first in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Total Recall and Marriage Equality edition), speak for himself.

Indiana University expert available to comment on President Obama’s position on same-sex marriage
May 9, 2012

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- President Barack Obama told ABC News today that same-sex couples should be able to marry, ending a two-year period in which his views on the issue were said to be "evolving." Brian Powell, Rudy Professor of Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington, is available to comment on the president's statement.

"President Obama's evolving view about same-sex marriage is strikingly similar to Americans' evolving views on the same issue," said Powell, who has conducted extensive research on attitudes toward marriage and family. "Nearly all national surveys indicate that half or slightly more than half of all Americans believe that same-sex couples should have the same marital rights as heterosexual couples.

"This evolution in American views has been rapid," Powell said. "Just 10 years ago, same-sex marriage was a foreign idea to most Americans. Years from now, President Obama's comments from today will be viewed as a critical historical moment in the movement toward marriage equality."

You said it.

The flip side to this was the story about Mitt Romney's bullying of a high-school classmate. I'll get to that later. Stay tuned.

*This last video alone puts the "play" in this post, as it's about same-sex relationships Star Wars: The Old Republic, a video game.