"I think there's a whole host of issues that I would direct you to the campaign on different questionnaires and I would again reiterate what the president has said recently on that issue", White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told the Washington Blade at a press briefing, dodging follow-up questions about the release of a 1996 questionnaire showing Barack Obama's explicit support for the legalisation of same-sex marriage.
The reportedly uncomfortable exchange reflects the questionnaire’s clash with President Obama’s current official position, which he has held since the 2008 presidential campaign: “I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage”, he told MTV back then.
Twelve years earlier, the then Illinois State Senate candidate responded to a written questionnaire on his position on same-sex marriage by stating: "I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages."
Obama's Patchy Track Record on Gay Rights
The current administration's uneven track record on gay and lesbian rights has included notorious victories for civil rights activists, such as last year's Congressional repeal of the 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' policy banning openly gay individuals from serving in the armed forces, after a long and bitter debate that spanned seven years and three administrations.
A policy mandate over LGBT-friendly hospital visitation rights is the latest cautious addition to a list of symbolic open-hand gestures from the Obama presidency to the American LGBT community, such as his mild condemnation of California's 'Proposition 8' ballot initiative that annulled same-sex marriage rights in the state as "divisive", or his personal involvement in the 2010 "It Gets Better" campaign aimed at preventing suicide among American LGBT teenagers.
However, efforts to bring forth the Employment Nondiscrimination Act or repeal the "Defense of Marriage Act" -- which bans legal recognition of same-sex marriages at federal level -- are currently unlikely to succeed under a Republican-controlled congress. Obama's window of opportunity on LGBT rights is now far narrower than before -- and his previous overly cautious approach to LGBT-friendly legislation has left many of his supporters disappointed and dissatisfied, with a Newsweek' magazine editorial accusing the President of "moral cowardice" over, among other issues, gay and lesbian rights.
Clinton: No to Gay Marriage
Any discomfort of America's sexual minorities with the current administration is unlikely to abate with the February 2011 issue of America's leading gay magazine, The Advocate, which features an exclusive interview with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In it, Clinton reaffirms her formal opposition to the legalisation of same-sex marriage, just as her husband and former President Bill Clinton has publicly changed his -- from opposing to supporting: "“Well, I share [Bill Clinton's] experience because we obviously share a lot of the same friends, but I have not changed my position,” she told The Advocate.
Gay America's Turning Tide
Obama's apparent 180-degree turn, and Clinton's resistance to allow her public stance on same-sex marriage to evolve, is likely to reflect the loaded nature of LGBT rights in American electoral politics, rather than genuine personal conviction.
Still fresh in the Democratic Party's mind, Karl Rove's 2004 re-election campaign for George W. Bush notoriously utilised anti-gay themes to mobilise the Republican Party's religious right base. Ballot initiatives to ban same-sex marriage were placed in 11 states, and passed easily in every one of them, with an average support of roughly 70 percent. A study of the Michigan and Ohio initiatives by the University of Florida demonstrated that these initiatives had a positive electoral impact on the vote received by President Bush.
Six years later, however, the public opinion landscape in America looks markedly different. According to a CNN poll released in August 2010, public support for same-sex marriage now stands at 52 percent of the population, against a rate of opposition of 46 percent,
The diminished electoral risk of unequivocally supporting same-sex marriage appears to be making little difference in the public stances of the Democratic leadership, at least until now. Civil rights activists, political pundits and the public at large remains expectant to see what role LGBT rights will play in Obama's 2012 re-election campaign -- and perhaps more importantly, which side of the issue he will stand on this time.
