This is for him, mostly.

I will never condone throwing up klans' robes and burning crosses in African American DUers' faces, especially the day after the first African American President was inaugurated for the second time, and in his Inaugural Address said these words,

"We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths –- that all of us are created equal –- is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.

It is now our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began. For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. (Applause.) Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law –- (applause) -- for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. (Applause.) Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. (Applause.) Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity -- (applause) -- until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country. (Applause.) Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia, to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for and cherished and always safe from harm.". http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/01/21/inaugural-address-president-barack-obama

I posted that whole paragraph just to point out exactly where civil rights for LGBTs placed in that list of very important issues. It was ahead of gun control, ahead of voting rights, ahead of immigration reform.

I also want to emphasize that this was said as President Obama addressed the entire country, and as he stood directly in front of the Supreme Court, which will rule on the appeal of the overturned Prop 8 in California, a number of other gay marriage cases, and a challenge to DOMA - part of which President Obama directed Eric Holder not to enforce on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. Yes, President Obama did that. The heightened scrutiny sec 3 received helped overturn Prop 8 in California as well. Yes, this Administration did that, too. For all this, President Obama was called a bigot. At this point I begin to wonder just who the bigot really is.

As much as every single person here wants the issue of marriage to be settled once and for all, it is not yet so. There is not YET a Loving case for LGBT marriage as there is for interracial marriage. As much as we would like Loving to have settled LGBT marriage, it did not. As much as we want to say that this is a civil rights issue and that Federal Law certainly MUST ALREADY COVER IT, obviously it does not yet do so; otherwise, we would not be in this place.

When we GET a Loving-style decision THEN LGBT marriage will be as settled as interracial marriage. The concept is certainly settled in all our minds. Unfortunately, because of reserved powers, the states can still pass these discriminatory laws based on sexual orientation - not race (as that was outlawed by Loving) - and it is up to the Court to overturn those laws. Therefore, Jay Carney's answer is correct as things stand. And it is the least likely to inflame a conservative group and get them to want to pass such a law in a state that has not yet done so.

One more thing. Just what upside would a different answer have achieved in real terms? Absolutely nothing. Pretty much like the Inaugural Address that a few people derided, too.

I had a good exchange with dbackjon yesterday. He cares deeply. I think he is scared. AND he has good reason to be. I understand. I understand the analogy he was making between African American rights and LGBT rights as both being civil rights. That is the exact analogy President Obama made in his Inaugural Address, by linking the King speech. I would like people to read it again. Everyone should have understood that. Dbackjon needs to know that all of us on DU understand that concept. And stirring up anger at a group of people who also get murdered for who they are is no way to go about this. And I ask, would the LGBT community here be cool with African Americans using the converse as a way to make THEIR points? Burning Rainbow Flags? Making fun of gay stereotypes instead of saying "Yes, Massa"? I think not. I know not. It would not be viewed as merely obnoxious. It would be viewed as homophobia, pure and simple. I remember Matthew Shepard. I cried for him, still do. But I am also from the Mississippi Delta. Long, long time ago. Klan robes and burning crosses have real, deadly meaning there.

I will close with an excerpt from MLK's speech. He indeed understood "not shutting up". But he also understood keeping friends close. And he probably would have understood not treading upon people who are already downtrodden. And abused. And beaten. And murdered in their own right because of the majority's other prejudices.
http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-48162/ snip
"It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. 1963 is not an end but a beginning. Those who hoped that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. ****

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for whites only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.". Snip

Dbackjon, don't push everybody away. Oh, I'm just a white straight woman. But I care like hell.