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.”
One notable name never comes up in 44: The Musical, a raucously funny trip back to the Obama era, written, composed, and directed by Eli Bauman, and currently onstage at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Klein Theatre.
Historically and satirically speaking, you would think the show’s creator, who worked on Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, then briefly in Washington, D.C., wouldn’t choose to leave any prime targets off the table. Then again, as Bauman expresses in his recorded greeting that kicks off the show, 44 is about escaping the maelstrom of current events.
Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court has ordered a local civil registry to record the marriage of a Polish same-sex couple who wed in Germany in 2018.
The case involved JC-T, who holds both Polish and German citizenship, and MT, a Polish national. The couple married in Germany while living there under EU free-movement rules. When they later returned to Poland, local authorities refused to register their marriage, citing the constitution’s definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.
The couple challenged the decision, and after exhausting their appeals in Polish courts, the case went to the Court of Justice of the European Union. The court was asked to clarify whether EU law -- including free-movement rights and the EU Charter’s ban on discrimination -- requires countries that do not allow same-sex marriage to recognize valid marriages from other member states.
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