The nation isn’t ready for a gay president

Is the nation ready for an openly gay president?

The New York Times recently posed the question in an editorial asking whether the nation would be able to consider a gay man or woman acceptable to the public. The editorial didn’t ask any questions about the preparedness of the candidate or provide any specifics about whether or not we could ever elect a gay man or woman to be president.

My answer is a resounding no.

If a gay president had a partner, it would be an insurmountable obstacle under the current systems of law. The union would not be recognized by the federal government. Even if the two were from a state where gay marriage is legal, the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, prohibits the federal government from recognizing that union.

There is no way that we could ever elect a gay president. It simply is not possible. It’s not the diplomatic relationships or the complicated budgeting bills that would stop America from having a gay president. It’s the very minutia and mundane facts of everyday presidential life that would stop it.

Would the president’s partner need to pay rent to live in the White House? Would the president be able to use the tax-payer dollars to buy his partner dinner at a state event? How would the Secret Service handle a simple lover that meant nothing to the United States government in the legal sense?

While these obstacles could be overcome after some extreme legislative change, it is not likely to happen in the near future. Although, President Obama took the right step in refusing to defend DOMA in appeals court after it has been repeatedly struck down by several lower courts in a handful of different cases.

After the Obama administration announced that it would drop the defense of DOMA, newspaper editorial boards around the nation penned praise for the president. Also, for the first time ever, a reliable and trustworthy polling company reported that more people support gay marriage than oppose it. The poll found that 46 percent of Americans supported same-sex marriage while only 40 percent opposed it.

And although popular opinion does not make truth, or even laws, it is demonstrative of how difficult it will be to earn marriage equality across the nation.

After the DOMA announcement was made, the conservatives professed the pending doom of the United States. Our own Utah newspaper, the Deseret News, painted the Obama administration as the largest threat to their narrowly-defined definition of a family. Gay marriage is only legal in five states and Washington, D.C. Civil unions are recognized in seven states. There is almost no chance of same-sex marriage being recognized as an equal right in the near future.

After attending QSaltLake’s same-sex wedding, the most outstanding aspect was that there really wasn’t one. The wedding had rings, vows, flowers and a reception. The cake was a delicious spice cake. The couple danced to Shania Twain. The friends and family members of the couple came to support them in their endeavors. The wedding was beautiful and executed magnificently. But it was extremely commonplace. If not for the fact that there were two tuxedos involved and no dresses, no one would have noticed anything remarkable about this ceremony.

As soon as more people start seeing just how boringly similar gay couples are to straight couples, gay marriage will be as acceptable and mundane as hetero marriages.

All the push around from the conservatives will be for naught and eventually gay marriage will be a norm, even in Utah.

But until a kiss on national television between a male candidate and his partner after he wins the Iowa primary isn’t blurred or only shown on cable, we are stuck with straight allies in the White House.