Obama v Doma: how gay Americans marched towards equality
Posted by The Editor on June 2, 2019 1:00 am
Tags: Barack Obama, Civil rights movement, Law (US), LGBT rights, Michelle Obama, Obama administration, US constitution and civil liberties, US supreme court, World news
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From Joe Biden’s unplanned endorsement to a White House lit by the rainbow flag, LGBTQ Americans lived through three extraordinary years
On 6 May 2012, Joe Biden went on Meet the Press to endorse marriage equality – and credited an NBC sitcom for his decision: “I think Will and Grace probably did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody has done so far.”
Three days later, in the middle of his re-election campaign, Barack Obama followed the lead of his vice-president. In 1996, Bill Clinton had signed the Defense of Marriage Act (Doma) in the middle of the night because he thought that was necessary to ensure his re-election. Now a new Democratic president had embraced the push for equality as a political plus, especially with the younger voters who were so important to his success.