Anne Hathaway, Jane Lynch, Ellen DeGeneres and more petition Obama to legalize gay marriage
By Jessica GentileMarch 17th, 2011, 9:30 amComments (7)
A bunch of celebrities, both gay and straight alike, are imploring the president to take on a stronger position in support of gay marriage. Anne Hathaway, Jane Lynch, Lily Tomlin, Martin Sheen, and Ellen and Portia DeGeneres are among the over 33,000 people (and counting) who have all signed a statement written by the Freedom to Marry campaign, which seeks to legalize gay marriage nationwide and end discrimination based on sexual orientation.
You too can sign the letter via the Freedom to Marry website. It directly states:
Dear Mr. President,
In February, you made a powerful statement about the law.
We ask you now for your leadership on ending the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage -- an exclusion that harms millions of Americans each day. Whether to end discrimination in marriage is a question America has faced before, and faces again today.
With so many Americans talking it through in heartfelt conversations, it is a question that calls for clarity from the president.
Mr. President, the time to end exclusion from marriage is now. We ask you to complete your journey and join us, and the majority of Americans, who support the freedom to marry.
Hey, if anyone has executive power to change things it's the president, right? Well, the President, Congress, other state and federal officials, high courts, and the public electorate. But why not aim for the highest office in the land? Here's hoping Obama says, "I do".
Commentarium (7 Comments)
Well, he's ordered the Department of Justice not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court. I'd say he's working on it.
In terms of legal steps, Obama's actually done about as much as he can do. (Of course he can and should be a cheerleader for marriage equality, but that's not a legal-oriented step.) He's obligated by his oath of office to enforce DOMA until it's repealed or the courts declare it unconstitutional (this is the distinction between not defending it and not enforcing that some people have missed). Marriage definitions are mostly creatures of state, not federal law; indeed, one of the DOMA's problems is that it violates the Full Faith and Credit Clause and impinges on a traditional area of state sovereignty and obligation. But Obama's come about as far as he can legally at this point.
> Hey, if anyone has executive power to change things it's the president, right?
No. He doesn't have the legislative power to create a law, unlike, say, Congress. He doesn't even really have the power to declare things "unconstitutional," that would be judicial review.
It's amazing how little many people know about the American form of government. Obama can't "legalize" anything, although I suppose one could think of the Presidential authority to pardon as a close substitute. And I won't even get into the fact that marriage is a matter for the States.
Besides, he's too busy picking his NCAA brackets right now.
Maybe they should start boycotting companies that supported him because he's so anti-gay.
THERE YOU GO you have it i have said it also YES the GAYS HAVE TO GO AWAY
EXECUTIVE ORDER, fools!