Obama Sends Letter to Gay Couple Congratulating Them on Marriage
President Obama sent Matt Katz and his husband a letter after they were married, congratulating him.
They have no idea why they received the card.
Matt says, "I'm not sure why the letter got sent to us. Aaron and I were married on July 24th at Borough Hall. However, we had our wedding ceremony on July 23rd at my dad's house the day before. Maybe word got out that we were outlaws for a day?"
He sends lots of those letters. In states where marriage is legal, the letters say congratulations on your "marriage." In states where's it not, they say "union."
Posted by: Mike | Dec 20, 2011 10:42:35 AM
Obama is going to show his support for marriage equality next year. This was the plan all along. Some of you are so very unsavvy.
Posted by: Gregoire | Dec 20, 2011 10:43:53 AM
This is a form letter and Obama had nothing to do with it. I bet if you sent a request in to have a letter sent to the marriage of Rover and Fluffy, there would be a good chance your pets would receive the same letter.
Making something of nothing.
Posted by: bayhuntr | Dec 20, 2011 10:44:07 AM
Robert, I see your point about Gingrich's inability to articulate his position on marriage due to his serial adultery. But then in fairness to Gingrich, he didn't leave either of his wives for a gay lover. I'm not sure the public will view him as hypocritical for opposing SSM. It's really the high divorce rate (among straights) that he can't take up as an issue.
But the fact is that it would be taking an unnecessary risk for Obama to come out in favor of SSM before election day. Democrats have a hard enough time getting elected and reelected to the presidency when they try to neutralize social issues. We have no example of a Democrat going hard left on gay issues and winning the presidency. If anything the swing voters, knowing that Obama has the gay vote anyway, are likely to see this as a desperation move to take attention away from the lagging economy.
I understand your feelings about people like Bachmann and Santorum. But the truth is that most of what they could do as president would have little effect on gays. There would still be gay newspapers, TV shows, organiations, etc.. Society's increasing acceptance of gays is too far advanced to be reversed by a president. And the people have shown no interest in turning back the clock even if they're ambivalent about what future policy should be.
Posted by: Mary | Dec 20, 2011 10:48:34 AM
My, my, it IS election season, isn't it? When Obama does something to support gay marriage before the fact instead of six months later, let us know, will ya?
Posted by: jomicur | Dec 20, 2011 11:26:42 AM
@Mike, not so. This letter was to a New York couple, where marriage is legal. The determining factor of whether you get a letter congratulating the couple on their "wedding" or their "union" appears to be the sexual orientation of the couple, not the status of marriage equality at their location. I'll also note the letter sent to opposite sex couples is autopenned by both the President and First Lady while the one sent to same sex couples (after digging up two more online) is only autopenned with just the President's signature.
Posted by: Craig | Dec 20, 2011 11:47:20 AM
@Craig. Hmm, I see. Well, I have some lesbian friends who were married in Massachussetts last year, and they were congratulated by the Obamas on their "marriage."
Posted by: Mike | Dec 20, 2011 11:58:10 AM
@Mike, can you post the text, please? In doing searches online for the text of congratulations notes for marriages, I've turned up only two versions. The one that is sent to opposite sex couples uses the term "wedding" and doesn't mention "marriage." The ones that have been received by same sex couples (four I've found so far, the one above included, that have posted them online) have all been the same exact text (but with different line breaks in some of them) and use the word "union." As I note above, they also differ in not having the First Lady's signature.
Posted by: Craig | Dec 20, 2011 12:25:41 PM
This is not news. Anyone can ask for this. Also, ours says congratulations on your "wedding day." A friend requested a greeting on our behalf. I submitted a White House greeting for my grandparents on their 50th anniversary, and my grandparents also incorrectly thought it just fell from the sky.
Posted by: U Street NW | Dec 20, 2011 6:12:50 PM
This is really pretty disgusting!!! A president should not do like this.
Posted by: Garden Seed | Mar 29, 2012 9:26:19 AM