Obama and gays
Alexander (can I call him Sasha on the Internets?) has a good breakdown of the Obama performance I didn't see up at his TNR stomping grounds. There's one thing I want to take issue with, though:
The exception, I think, was his line about overcoming the stigma of HIV/AIDS, which Jon cites:
One of the things that we've got to overcome is a stigma that still exists in our communities. We don't talk about this. We don't talk about in the schools. Sometimes we don't talk about it in the churches. It has been an aspect of sometimes a homophobia, that we don't address this issue as clearly as it needs to be.
But whatever points Obama gets for that line should be undone by the exchange that followed moments later. When Joe Biden talked about overcoming the stigma of being tested for AIDS ("I got tested for AIDS. I know Barack got tested for AIDS. There's no shame in being tested for AIDS"), Obama interjected that he got tested with his wife:
Barack Obama: Tavis, I just got to make clear that I got tested with Michelle when we were in Kenya in Africa, so I don't want any confusion here about what's going on.
Joe Biden: Well, I got tested to save my life because I had a blood transfusion.
Barack Obama: I was tested with my wife.
Tavis Smiley: And I'm sure Michelle appreciates you clarifying that.
Barack Obama: In public.
So while he's all for combating homophobia within the African American community, it seems he also doesn't want anyone to get the impression that he's on the down-low.
Sounds to me like Obama wanted to make it clear to the audience that he wasn't being tested for AIDS because of an extra-marital affair (gay or straight) and not because he's in the closet. As far as playing politics goes, he didn't. Not on that question. He asserted his monogamy (points) but also asserted his tolerance for gay people (fewer points). The black community lines up, I think, more closely on this issue with John Edwards, who is both a devoted husband and also uncomfortable with homosexuals. Not, of course, that this is a good trait of his, or has anything to do with who Edwards can count on getting votes from. I just think Obama's getting a bad rap here.
Comments
No -- the point is that even when he says we need to battle stigma, he feels the need to clarify why he got an HIV test so no one thinks he did something wrong. It's no one's business why anyone gets an HIV test. A much better response would have been, "I went to Africa and my wife and I got tested for HIV together, to prove there's no shame in getting tested, and everyone should do it."
I'm with ya, Kate. I thought Obama's second response was more than a little ambiguous and unhelpful. Why does being tested with your spouse appear to Obama to be a better reason than being tested alone? Brian is correct that the answer could be that alone might imply an straight affair or fling, or a gay one - neither of which he wants to associate with, understandably, I guess.
In reality, if he or his spouse HAD an outside-the-marriage sex contact - and they had an open dialogue about this (a laudable thing), then both of them should be tested. Both of them being tested proves nothing about either's sex life.
But he came across, to me, to be guarding against 'teh gay' implication - and it undercut his point about black community hidden homophobia (which isn't so hidden, as Obama seemed to display, actually). A curious performance, and his animated reaction smelled of overreaction.
Possibly... I didn't see the performance, only read the transcripts.
Look, Obama's got good command, but he isn't perfect. And while it's possible to imagine a million better clarifications here, his impulse to be defensive--to avoid having to fend off insinuations about an affair for weeks--is understandable. It's shameful that candidates have to worry about this stuff... but they do.
It seems especially forgivable given that you guys are making a somewhat different point. It doesn't read to me like Obama was being homophobic, but even if he was that's a bit different than saying that HIV testing should be a matter of shame. In fact, the whole episode was presaged by Biden saying: "What is the plan to stop and to protect these young people from this scourge? I got tested for AIDS. I know Barack got tested for AIDS. There's no shame in being tested for AIDS. It's an important thing."
Obama didn't dispute Biden at all. It sounded to me like he wanted the studio and TV audiences to know that he got tested outwardly, with pride--not in a secret way that he was hiding from his wife.
That's all!
Nuh uh. We must think, in the era of the Drudge Report, the unscrupulous Fox News, and the lazy rest of the cable news networks squawking about this.
Imagine with me....
Drudge: OBAMA HAS AIDS???
Fox: a prominent blogger questions if indeed, Obama was tested for or has AIDS, a disease primarily found among homosexuals and African-Americans...
CNN: Several news networks are discussing that Obama is a homosexual and is trying to hide his infection with HIV, Wolf Blitzer will be talking to Magic Johnson later on...
Everybody knows that the slightest slip (a shrill scream, saying that you voted for or against something, wearing a tank helmet that is too big) can destroy a perfectly good candidacy.
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