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Tears, Texts And Hugs: How Politicians And Activists Reacted To Obama’s Gay Marriage News
Tears, Texts And Hugs: How Politicians And Activists Reacted To Obama’s Gay Marriage News
Pema Levy
Less than 12 hours after North Carolina voters approved a same-sex marriage ban in their state, Connecticut state Sen. Beth Bye (D) told her wife that she had accepted the fact that President Obama was not going to support marriage equality until after the election.
“I’m going to cry when I say this to you,” Bye told TPM. “I mean, yesterday I felt like I was punched in the stomach.” Bye and her wife, Tracey Wilson, were the first gay couple to marry in the state of Connecticut. The North Carolina vote affected her more than she imagined, she said, and it made Obama’s announcement Wednesday afternoon that he supports same-sex marriage even sweeter. All day Wednesday, gay lawmakers and members of the governor’s administration in Connecticut, one of six states (along with the District of Columbia) that allow gay marriage, found one another and embraced in hugs. “It’s the last day of session, so we’re running up and down and trying to get bills passed,” Bye said. “But in the midst of this we’re finding each other.”
<...>
“My reaction?” asks Sam Adams, the openly gay mayor of Portland, Ore. “It was something like, ‘Great frickin’ news!’” That’s “not very mayoral,” Adams admitted, “but heartfelt.” Adams said he never thought he would hear a sitting president endorse gay marriage. “Growing up in a small Oregon coastal town, in Newport, Ore., I never thought in my lifetime I would ever hear a president say that he supported equal marriage,” Adams said. “I’m 48, and that just was not something I ever expected to hear in my lifetime.” He received the news in a text message from his partner as he was leaving a City Council meeting.
“I’m gay. I’m almost 54 years old. I grew up in East Tennessee, where it was not really so easy to be gay, so I didn’t come out until I was in my 30s,” said Rick Jacobs, founder and president of the Courage Campaign and a longtime gay rights activist. “One of the reasons I worked so hard on full LGBT equality is because I don’t want kids growing up in East Tennessee or North Carolina or anywhere else in the country having no role models and thinking that they are less than the rest of their family or friends. And so when I heard the president today,” he said, “I literally teared up.”
“Who would have thought that this would happen so quickly?” said Virginia state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D), the first and only openly gay legislator in the Commonwealth. “I mean so quickly in terms of the marriage equality movement, I’m not saying it’s sooner for this president,” Ebbin said. “I think this president did this just in time not to be left behind by history.”
- more -
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/05/gay-americans-react-to-news-that-president-supports-marriage-equality.php
Pema Levy
Less than 12 hours after North Carolina voters approved a same-sex marriage ban in their state, Connecticut state Sen. Beth Bye (D) told her wife that she had accepted the fact that President Obama was not going to support marriage equality until after the election.
“I’m going to cry when I say this to you,” Bye told TPM. “I mean, yesterday I felt like I was punched in the stomach.” Bye and her wife, Tracey Wilson, were the first gay couple to marry in the state of Connecticut. The North Carolina vote affected her more than she imagined, she said, and it made Obama’s announcement Wednesday afternoon that he supports same-sex marriage even sweeter. All day Wednesday, gay lawmakers and members of the governor’s administration in Connecticut, one of six states (along with the District of Columbia) that allow gay marriage, found one another and embraced in hugs. “It’s the last day of session, so we’re running up and down and trying to get bills passed,” Bye said. “But in the midst of this we’re finding each other.”
<...>
“My reaction?” asks Sam Adams, the openly gay mayor of Portland, Ore. “It was something like, ‘Great frickin’ news!’” That’s “not very mayoral,” Adams admitted, “but heartfelt.” Adams said he never thought he would hear a sitting president endorse gay marriage. “Growing up in a small Oregon coastal town, in Newport, Ore., I never thought in my lifetime I would ever hear a president say that he supported equal marriage,” Adams said. “I’m 48, and that just was not something I ever expected to hear in my lifetime.” He received the news in a text message from his partner as he was leaving a City Council meeting.
“I’m gay. I’m almost 54 years old. I grew up in East Tennessee, where it was not really so easy to be gay, so I didn’t come out until I was in my 30s,” said Rick Jacobs, founder and president of the Courage Campaign and a longtime gay rights activist. “One of the reasons I worked so hard on full LGBT equality is because I don’t want kids growing up in East Tennessee or North Carolina or anywhere else in the country having no role models and thinking that they are less than the rest of their family or friends. And so when I heard the president today,” he said, “I literally teared up.”
“Who would have thought that this would happen so quickly?” said Virginia state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D), the first and only openly gay legislator in the Commonwealth. “I mean so quickly in terms of the marriage equality movement, I’m not saying it’s sooner for this president,” Ebbin said. “I think this president did this just in time not to be left behind by history.”
- more -
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/05/gay-americans-react-to-news-that-president-supports-marriage-equality.php
Very moving piece.
2 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
