Obama Attacks Anti-Gay GOP Presidential Candidates ‘Supporting Discrimination’ At DNC Fundaiser

President Obama slammed Republican presidential candidates who are using anti-gay discrimination to gain votes.

Although he did not mention them by name, President Barack Obama Sunday night denounced several Republican presidential candidates who have been attacking LGBT people. 

The President told DNC donors and supporters at a New York City fundraiser that “the good news” is Republicans this year “probably won’t use marriage equality as a wedge issue like they did in 2004 because the country has come too far. In fact, America has left the leaders of the Republican Party behind.”

America needs to “reject politicians who are supporting new forms of discrimination as a way to scare up votes,” Pres. Obama insisted.

“One of their leading candidates argued that going to prison turns you gay,” Obama said, clearly mocking Dr. Ben Carson. “I’m just stating the facts,” he was forced to announce.  

“Another candidate boasts that he introduced an amendment to end nationwide marriage equality — which isn’t even an accomplishment at all,” the President said, taking a swipe at Ted Cruz.

“A third says Americans should just disobey the Supreme Court’s ruling entirely,” Obama said of either Mike Huckabee or Rick Santorum – or both. 

“I’m sure he loves the Constitution — except for Article III.  And maybe the Equal Protection Amendment.  And 14th Amendment, generally,” Obama quipped, to laughter.

“The cynics were wrong. Tonight, we live in an America where ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is something that ‘don’t exist.'”

“Harvey Milk once said, ‘If a gay person makes it, the doors are open to everyone.’ But to those of us who’ve made it through those doors, we’ve got a unique obligation to reach back and make sure other people can make it through those doors, too. We have a responsibility to stand up to bigotry — not just against us, but against anybody, anywhere,” the President said.

“We speak up to condemn hatred against anybody — gay or straight, black or white, Christian, Muslim, Jew, non-believer, immigrant – because we remember what silence felt like when hatred was directed at us, and we’ve got to be champions on behalf of justice for everybody, not just our own.”

Pointing to “the trans activist demanding dignity,” “the immigrant hoping to contribute, or the middle-class kid struggling to pay for college,” “the woman denied equal pay, the African-American denied the right to vote, the worker denied a living wage,” President Obama told the room that while their “stories may not be ours, but surely we can see our stories in theirs.  We can make their fight our own.”

 

And that, he said, is “America at its best.”

 

Image by Doug Mills via Twitter