Barack Obama, one of the Democratic presidential candidates, has been criticized and judged throughout his presidential campaign on what he has said regarding many of the United States' issues. Two of those issues being Abortion and Gay Rights.
“My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington” (Source B). In order to accomplish this statement, he has talked about gay rights and abortion in a way that won't offend anyone. On gay rights, he stated that he “supports granting civil unions for gay couples and opposed a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage,” (Source D); while on abortion he believes that “a woman's right to decide how many children to have and when is one of the nation's most fundamental freedoms” (Source A).
“If we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that none of our hands are entirely clean. If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to King’s vision of a beloved community. We have scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them” (Source D). Barack Obama is obviously not against gay people's rights. In his point of view “We can no longer afford to build ourselves up by tearing someone else down” (Source D). This shows that he wants to encourage tolerance, rather than division when it comes to the truth about people and their sexuality. To him homosexuals are no more immoral than heterosexuals, so they shouldn't be classified as a group because of their sexuality. He supports gay rights so much that he co-sponsored a bill that would expand the definition of hate crimes to offenses based on sexual orientation (Source C).
Regarding marriage, he personally believes that it is between a man and a woman. Yet in his book, The Audacity of Hope, he sticks with the fact that he is “open to the possibility that my unwillingness to support gay marriage is misguided ... I may have been infected with society's prejudices and predilections and attributed them to God” (Source E). He thinks that decisions regarding gay marriage should be left to each state, but that he supports in giving civil unions between gay couples the same benefits as a man and woman couple. Obama has said in many occasions that the definition of the word 'marriage' should be “disentangled” from the civil rights of gay people because it causes a lot of controversy towards gay people (Source B).
Obama's position on gays serving in the U.S. Military is supported by the “Don't Ask, Don't tell” Policy, which allows gays to serve in the military only if their sexual orientation remains hidden. But he thinks that this policy, which is very costly, should be reexamined because “gays and lesbians who have been serving ably in the military” shouldn't have to be excluded when they have performed their job as well as a heterosexual (Source B).
Barack Obama's views on Abortion are that it should only happen in terms of the mother’s life or severe health consequences. “There are two principles: There’s the principle that a fetus is not just an appendage, it’s potential life ... They also believe that women should have some control over their bodies and themselves and there is a privacy element to making those decisions” (Source G). Because this is a very sensitive and arguable issue, the only way that it can be solved in Obama's eyes, is by reducing teen pregnancies. The way to do that is by giving sex education to teenagers, not so that they don't have sex, but so that they can act responsibly about it. A parent is a big role in this by communicating to their children so that they take it seriously, not just as a game(Source G). Since Obama is Pro-Abortion, it has caused a lot of controversy within the black community because it has the highest abortion rates compared to any other ethnic group and it “shows a lack of love for the black community and especially for the unborn”(Source F).
Citations:
Source A
"2008 Presidential Campaign Issues." USA Today 06-02-2008
Source B
"Barack Obama on gay civil rights." USA Today (2008) 06-02-2008
Source C
"Interview With Barack Obama." CNN LARRY KING LIVE 19 Mar 2007 06-02-2008
Source D
Jackson, Thomas. "Obama Speaks Out on Gay Rights ." 20 Jan 2008 06-02-2008
Source E
"The Candidates on Gay Marriage." The Pew Forum (2008) 06-02-2008
Source F
Starr, Penny. "Obama's Abortion Stance Hurts Blacks, Say Pro-Life Experts." CNSNews.com 08 Jan 2008 06-02-2008
Source G
Zeleny, Jeff. "Obama Explores Abortion Issue." The New York Times 6 Oct 2007 06-02-2008
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