I just have to comment publicly, as I do every time this comes up: Barack Obama *publicly* opposed same-sex marriage. Barack Obama *was lying his ass off* because everyone in the city of Chicago who paid any attention to the issue in the 90's *knew he supported same-sex marriage* because he was *on the record, in print, as doing so.* (since google is broken, this Politico story will have to suffice, but the actual document has lived in my mind rent-free for quite a while now: https://www.politico.com/blogs/ben-smith/2009/01/obama-backed-same-sex-marriage-in-1996-015306)
That said, Obama WAS "required" to lie about his beliefs to run (was this true? Would the needle have moved earlier if he pulled a Tim Walz "mind your own business?" we'll never know!).
Similarly, but on the opposite end, the Walzes' moral courage last century TRULY is exemplary, given the general attitudes of the communities in which they were teaching. But one of the (surprisingly many) reasons Jesse Ventura was secretly not, at the time, the risible electoral outcome the rest of the country likes to think he was? He WAS pretty "eh, mind your own business" about same-sex marriage back in 1998. I know, because it was one of my handful of "off the wall, but I'll definitely vote for someone who embraces them" litmus tests, while we're talking speedy social change (the others were legalizing marijuana and getting rid of the Electoral College).
I just have to comment publicly, as I do every time this comes up: Barack Obama *publicly* opposed same-sex marriage. Barack Obama *was lying his ass off* because everyone in the city of Chicago who paid any attention to the issue in the 90's *knew he supported same-sex marriage* because he was *on the record, in print, as doing so.* (since google is broken, this Politico story will have to suffice, but the actual document has lived in my mind rent-free for quite a while now: https://www.politico.com/blogs/ben-smith/2009/01/obama-backed-same-sex-marriage-in-1996-015306)
That said, Obama WAS "required" to lie about his beliefs to run (was this true? Would the needle have moved earlier if he pulled a Tim Walz "mind your own business?" we'll never know!).
Similarly, but on the opposite end, the Walzes' moral courage last century TRULY is exemplary, given the general attitudes of the communities in which they were teaching. But one of the (surprisingly many) reasons Jesse Ventura was secretly not, at the time, the risible electoral outcome the rest of the country likes to think he was? He WAS pretty "eh, mind your own business" about same-sex marriage back in 1998. I know, because it was one of my handful of "off the wall, but I'll definitely vote for someone who embraces them" litmus tests, while we're talking speedy social change (the others were legalizing marijuana and getting rid of the Electoral College).