Former President Barack Obama — Photo by Chuck Kennedy / Biden for President
Former President Barack Obama has criticized Republicans who continue to attack same-sex marriage, six years after the Supreme Court legalized it nationwide.
Obama spoke Saturday at a campaign event for former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, just days after McAuliffe’s Republican opponent, Glenn Youngkin, said he opposed marriage equality.
In an interview last week with the Associated Press, Youngkin spoke of his Christian faith and said he doesn’t support same-sex marriage, instead describing it as “legally acceptable.”
“Are we still arguing about gay marriage? Really?” Obama, the first sitting president to publicly support gay couples having the right to marry, said during Saturday’s event at Virginia Commonwealth University. “I thought that ship had sailed. I thought that was pretty clearly the right thing to do.”
The former president also urged voters in Virginia to support McAuliffe in the Nov. 2 election, issuing a veiled warning that a Republican win would “damage” the state.
“I’m here today because I believe Virginia will make the right choice,” Obama said. “I believe America, ultimately, will make the right choice. I believe you right here in Virginia are going to show the rest of the country, and the world, that we’re not going to indulge in our worst instincts.”
He continued: “We’re not going to go back to the past that did so much damage, we’re going to move forward with people like Terry leading the way.”
McAuliffe, who is seeking a second term as governor and currently holds a slim lead over Youngkin in polling, issued his own rebuke to his opponent’s comments.
“As governor, I worked my heart out to keep Virginia open and welcoming to all,” McAuliffe tweeted on Oct. 22. “This type of bigotry and intolerance has NO place in our Commonwealth.”
McAuliffe added that he was “proud to be the first Southern governor to officiate a same-sex wedding” and that he would “ALWAYS stand up for marriage equality here in Virginia.”
Jason Collins, the first openly gay NBA player, is reportedly undergoing treatment for a brain tumor. Collins made headlines more than a decade ago when he came out publicly in a first-person essay for Sports Illustrated.
The 41-year-old former center earned All-American honors at Stanford before being drafted by the Houston Rockets in 2001. Over his 13-year career, he played for several NBA teams, including the New Jersey Nets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, and Brooklyn Nets.
The U.S. Department of Education says it will begin suspending or cutting off federal funds to five Northern Virginia school districts that refused to roll back transgender-inclusive policies by an August 15 deadline.
"The Virginia districts will have to defend their embrace of radical gender ideology over ensuring the safety of their students," the agency wrote in a statement.
The five districts -- Alexandria City, Arlington County, Fairfax County, Loudoun County, and Prince William County public schools -- were previously threatened with losing federal funding after the Education Department determined that their trans-affirming policies, including allowing transgender students to use restrooms matching their gender identity, infringe on the rights of non-transgender students.
A new Pew Research Center survey finds that 59% of LGBTQ U.S. adults under age 50 who have never been married say they want to marry someday -- nearly the same as the 63% of non-LGBTQ adults who do. About 12% of each group say they never want to marry, while more than one-quarter are unsure of their future marriage plans.
By age, younger Americans who have never been married are more eager to wed than older peers, who are less certain and more doubtful about ever marrying.
Among those aged 18 to 29 who have never married, 67% of LGBTQ adults and 73% of non-LGBTQ adults say they want to marry someday. By contrast, just 48% of LGBTQ adults and 49% of non-LGBTQ adults aged 30 to 49 say the same, with nearly one-third in each group unsure.
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