What Would Happen If We Elected a Gay President?
By Andy Heath
I think even Abraham Lincoln, the great president that emancipated the slaves of America, would turn in his grave if he realized that there is now a Black president of the United States. In fact, many people that did not vote for Obama chose not to do so because he was Black. In some instances this was pure, ugly racism, but in some other instances, they chose to vote for McCain because they felt a Black president would have a largely Black agenda. Now we see that Obama is an American first and Black second.
Still, many people, even before Obama was a serious candidate for president, said they did not want to see a Black president in office. They felt it would give too much power to Black people (as if White people didn't have enough) and so they dreaded the day when it would happen. Indeed, if you ever sat down at a meal with friends of family and brought up what would happen if the American people elected a Black president, 40 percent would either cringe or tell you that no such thing would ever happen.
Now, I will ask the next big question with an assumption that might take another 150 years to come to fruition: What if the American people elected a gay president? What would happen?
I know what many people would say… "Oh no, that would be awful! The morals of our country would go straight to hell! How could any other country take us seriously if that happened? We MUST stop that from happening!"
Yeah, yeah, I've heard all that. I know many fundamentalist Christians think we gays have a plan to take over the world and subject them to all the immorality that would torture their pristine souls. We would destroy the world. But don't worry; no openly gay man or lesbian woman will be elected to our highest political office anytime soon. Still, I like to think that just because a president is gay does not necessarily mean that he will have a gay agenda. Sure, he or she would probably promote the rights of gay people just like he or she would promote the rights of everyone, but I believe a gay president would be an American first and a gay man or lesbian woman second. That's what being president is all about.
I think it is sad that I will probably never live to see the day that we elect an openly gay person as president, but I am happy that our country is moving in that direction and that change seems to be happening slowly. We are becoming a more open society and more accepting. Our young people are moving away from the cruel religion they are being taught and toward higher levels of acceptance.
I have to admit that I hope that one day we will all abandon Christianity, as it does not serve humanity. I don't see that this will happen anytime soon, but at least we're moving in a direction of greater acceptance of gays.
Still, when it does finally happen that a gay person becomes president, if humanity is around long enough for that to happen, I think we will see that the gay president is very much like Obama - American first and minority second.
