Brooke Obie on Obama’s Christian Legacy
For NewsOne’s new President Obama legacy website #OneObama, Brooke Obie contributed the article: “Obama’s Legacy Includes Christian Support for LGBTQ Rights“.
When President Obama came out in support of LGBTQ lives and in favor of marriage equality in a May 2012 interview with ABC News’ Robin Roberts, he became the first president to connect his policy to his Christian faith in a way that substantively benefitted the LGBTQ community.
“I’ve been going through an evolution on this issue,” Obama told Roberts of his decision to affirm marriage equality. “[Michelle Obama and I], we’re both practicing Christians. And when we think about our faith, the thing at root that we think about is not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf but it’s also the golden rule, you know? Treat others the way you’d want to be treated. And I think that’s what we try to impart to our kids. And that’s what motivates me as president.”
Obama’s affirmation came on the heels of his instructing the Department of Justice to not defend in court the Defense of Marriage Act, which banned the marriages of same-sex couples. The president considered the act unconstitutional. In 2011, the president also signed the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the ban on LGBTQ people serving and marrying openly in the military.
Military veteran, queer womanist theologian and activist Dr. Pamela Lightsey was at the forefront of the movement to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and worked against the GOP and the National Organization for Marriage’s efforts to use President Obama’s support of the LGBTQ community against him in the 2012 election.
“American opposition to same-sex marriage was about 45 percent but within the Black community it was somewhere between 60 to 70 percent,” reports Lightsey. “So we were really nervous about his chances of winning another term having expressed his support of same-sex marriage and LGBT rights. In 2012, President Obama was elected with 95 percent of Black Protestant support.”
In his second term, President Obama continued his Christian support of the LGBTQ community. Just last year, as the Supreme Court overturned the Defense of Marriage Act, legalizing marriage equality in the country, the White House lit up with all of the colors of the rainbow in celebration. Soon after, the Episcopal Church formally approved religious weddings for same-sex couples.
Episcopal priest and scholar the Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney shared the impact of Obama’s public stance on other Christians. “I watched people reduce then end vociferous opposition to changes in laws and public policy,” she says. Though she doesn’t credit Obama with beginning the cultural shift taking place in many religious circles, “Mr. Obama was part of that,” Gafney concedes.