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4 HN mentions · mentioned in 3 months, 2014–2019
1:41 · 591K views · Oct 29, 2008
A two-minute clip from 2008 in which Barack Obama states his position on same-sex marriage and civil unions. He says he supports civil unions rather than promoting same-sex marriage.
HN cites it as a record of Obama's 2008 stance, usually to make a point about how mainstream views on gay marriage shifted.
4 comments from Hacker News
It's the other way around, you got it all wrong. Bush wanted to introduce a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Cheney was against this amendment. I'll tell you more, Obama was against gay marriage well after that, as well: this video Specifically, written of Cheney in 2004: "Vice President Dick Cheney, whose daughter Mary is a lesbian, distanced himself from President Bush’s call for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage “Lynne and I have a gay daughter, so it’s an issue our family is very familiar with,” Cheney told an audience that included his daughter. “With the respect to the question of relationships, my general view is freedom means freedom for everyone. People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to. “The question that comes up with the issue of marriage is what kind of official sanction or approval is going to be granted by government? Historically, that’s been a relationship that has been handled by the states. The states have made that fundamental decision of what constitutes a marriage,” he said." Source: [LINK] Which is basically a position identical to Obama's position in 2008. Funny between two people holding the same views one is called a "homophobe", and another is a paragon of virtue.
For those who haven't seen it, Barack Obama opined on this topic around the same time as Brendan Eich, and over a much bigger megaphone than $1000 will buy: this video tl;dv: "I believe that marriage is the union between a man and woman ... For me as a Christian, it's also a sacred union .. you know, God's in the mix. ... I’m not somebody who promotes same-sex marriage, but I do believe in civil unions.”
>> and would be completely fine with another civil contract with the same rights but a different name. >Because "separate but equal" had such a good run last time around eh? Do you take the same hardline stance with others who were opposed to gay marriage a few years ago and advocating civil unions? [LINK] this video
In 2008, when Prop 8 was on the ballot, Obama was for civil unions but professed to believe that marriage is a sacred union between a man and a woman. "I'm not somebody who promotes same-sex marriage, but I do believe in civil unions." this video