'Obama Pride' Group Organized by Campaign to Attract LGBT Vote
Obama for America, the campaign organization of President Barack Obama, announced on Wednesday the formation of "Obama Pride: LGBT Americans for Obama," designed to attract and engage those who support the homosexual agenda in hopes that they will give the president a second term in November.
"The President's campaign has a long history of working with the LGBT community to move America forward," read the statement released by OFA LGBT National Vote Director Jamie Citron and Co-Chairman Joe Solmonese, out-going president of the Human Rights Campaign.
"The President believes that America prospers when we're all in it together; when hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded; when everyone, from Main Street to Wall Street, does their fair share and plays by the same rules."
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In a conference call with reporters on Wednesday, the campaign said the movement would include volunteer training, organized phone banks, house parties and a website designed to appeal to LGBT voters.
Solmonese wasted no time in attacking the GOP presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney, on the call, saying Romney was committed to passing a federal marriage amendment. "That effort amounts to the enshrining of discrimination to the United States Constitution."
Ever since President Obama announced he had "evolved" and that he now officially embraces same-sex marriage, activists on both sides are claiming that their bases are energized and that the issue will indeed play a major role in how people vote in November when Obama faces off with Romney.
A Washington Post/ABC News poll released Wednesday shows that a slight majority of Americans now favor same-sex marriage, but proponents who support traditional marriage stand by their statements that it will hurt President Obama when voters go into the privacy of their voting booths.
Penny Nance, CEO of Concerned Women for America, counters Solmonese by saying conservatives who strongly oppose the "redefining of traditional marriage" will express their views in greater numbers when election day rolls around.
"That's interesting. The stats I have seen say that a majority of Americans still believe in and support traditional marriage," Nance told CP. "I think his (Obama's) original intention was to come out [for same-sex marriage] after the election but after Vice President Biden expressed his support, he had no choice but to respond quickly.
"But I think all President Obama did was 'excite' his base that includes homosexual activists and Democrats. What he did was not only excite, but cause evangelicals to mobilize in greater numbers."
Yet Nance thinks all the back and forth about whose prognosis is correct will be revealed soon enough. "We can argue all we want to about who is right and wrong but Election Day will show us where the public is on this and other issues important to voters."
Pro-homosexual groups have come out in support of Obama's position and even the influential civil rights organization, the NAACP praised the president for his bold action.
However, on Thursday Sen. Jim DeMint (R- S.C.) will join Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr. on the steps of the Capitol to discuss their thoughts on how Christians and conservatives will mobilize in the next 168 days and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (Nevada) efforts to bring up a vote to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act signed into law by former President Bill Clinton.
READ: THE ROLE OF GAY MARRIAGE IN THIS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
