Originally posted by Metal_Man88

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They should just keep getting wackier and wackier. Then in time people can put Fox News in the Tabloid section and ignore its existence entirely.

Sadly, people will still be fooled by their lies, so we have a while until that happens.

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PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S RECENT statement of support for gay marriage in the United States is touching off an avalanche of advocacy for equal marriage rights throughout Europe as well. No, nobody died and made him emperor. But his high-level announcement might just expedite a continent-wide trend towards full marriage rights for gays and straights alike.

Obama has retained a great deal of his personal - if not political - appeal in Europe, and when he talks, people start talking. While his support may not make gay marriage more appealing per se to its opponents, it seems to be making public opposition to it less plausible. In Berlin today, Green politician Volker Beck challenged Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose Christian Democratic Union and her Free Democrat coalition partners have long been dragging their feet on gay marriage, to quit stallling and finally announce that “It’s okay to marry gay.” The current German law, which the Social Democrat/Green coalition pushed through in 2000, only allows for a “registered partnership” (a.k.a. “homo marriage”) without full marriage status and which still withholds tax privileges and adoption rights - although largely for practical rather than "moral" reasons.

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But it isn't just the left that is cheering Obama's move. Despite his government’s hesitation in the matter, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle of the coalition Free Democrats, who sealed his own “homo marriage” with boyfriend Michael Mronz back in 2010, announced that Obama’s statement was a “a brave step” in the spirit of the German government’s policies and, yes, “it’s okay to marry gay.” Today, encouraged by Obama and her party colleague Westerwelle, Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger called for full equal marriage rights in Germany. "Every life model deserves respect," she said.

Obama’s gay marriage "coming out" captured the headlines in every major European newspaper and has set an unignorable precedent. In France, it may further tip the balance towards a rapid introduction of equal marriage rights. President Nicolas Sarkozy (something of an expert on the topic, with three straight marriages and two divorces under his belt) regularly nixed the idea, stating that “to my knowledge and the current state of scientific knowledge, it requires a man and a woman to have a child.”

Tone-deaf comments like this may have helped cost him the election. According to the newspaper La Libération, speaking out in favor of gay marriage could have "made his image a bit more human," but ultimately he feared "alienating part of the traditional right-wing electorate." He needn't have bothered. His socialist successor François Hollande took a different tack, promising during his campaign to “open the right to marriage and adoption to homosexual couples” by 2013. Hollande defeated Sarkozy in a runoff election on May 6. It appears that French voters had other issues on their minds besides the threat of gay marriage. Who could have imagined it?

Alongside Germany and France, Denmark, Luxembourg, and Finland are considering going beyond their existing registered partnership laws and allowing full gay civil marriage. As far as Britain is concerned, Obama is behind the times. In Edinburgh, the Scottish National Party has announced that it is “inclined” to permit gay marriage in the near future. In London, party leaders David Cameron, Nick Clegg, and Ed Milliband are actively seeking action on the issue. This spring, Prime Minister Cameron famously announced: "I don't support gay marriage despite being a conservative. I support gay marriage because I am a conservative." No, Cameron hasn't turned into a blushing liberal, but he does know that it's not good politics for the Conservatives to be permanently branded "the nasty party."

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THE ground-breaking support by US President Barack Obama for gay marriage has been backed by conservative New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and the leader of the opposition Labour Party.

The next move in New Zealand is now likely to be a private member's bill from a Labour MP to introduce same-sex marriage, which would probably be passed.

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Comments by U.S. President Barack Obama in support of same-sex marriage in an ABC News interview on Wednesday have sparked debate in among Israeli ministers and MKs, and also among U.S. Jewish groups.

Speaking to a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender group within the Likud party on Thursday, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said that Israel is unlikely to recognize same-sex marriage in the foreseeable future, but said that he was reconsidering his opposition to such a measure.

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The Democratic governor, who last year helped make Illinois the first state in the Midwest to allow civil unions, said he now wants to push for marriage equality and that Illinois should show the nation it "believes in respecting everyone." Gay rights activists applauded the remarks and expected they would send a strong message to the Legislature, where a House bill to legalize same-sex marriage has been introduced.

After years of vague answers on the issue, Quinn voiced clear support last week in response to President Barack Obama's endorsement of same-sex marriage, saying "he stands with the president." Speaking to reporters in Chicago on Monday, Quinn signaled he's ready to move on the issue. In other states, such as Iowa, courts have cleared the way for gay marriage or civil unions.

"I don't think we want to wait on courts," Quinn said. "I think in Illinois, we are able to show the nation that we are a state that believes in respecting everyone. Everyone has dignity and rights."

Explaining his evolution on the issue, Quinn said civil unions have worked well in Illinois over the past year, and he thinks the state is ready for same-sex marriage.

"We've had more than 3,700 civil unions in almost every county in Illinois. I think it's working very well," Quinn said. "This is a process of democracy. In order to get something changed you have to get a majority in both houses, and I plan to do that for marriage equality."

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Rhode Island’s governor on Monday declared that the state will recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere, giving gay couples the same rights as heterosexual ones when it comes to health insurance and a slew of other benefits.

The order signed by Gov. Lincoln Chafee in a Statehouse ceremony directs state agencies to recognize marriages performed out of state as legal and treat same-sex married couples the same as heterosexual ones.

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Public opinion continues to shift in favor of same-sex marriage, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, which also finds initial signs that President Obama’s support for the idea may have changed a few minds.

Overall, 53 percent of Americans say gay marriage should be legal, hitting a high mark in support while showing a dramatic turnaround from just six years ago, when just 36 percent thought it should be legal. Thirty-nine percent, a new low, say gay marriage should be illegal.

The poll also finds that 59 percent of African Americans say they support same-sex marriage, up from an average of 41 percent in polls leading up to Obama’s announcement of his new position on the matter. Though statistically significant, it is a tentative result because of the relatively small sample of black voters in the poll.

The poll comes two weeks after Obama unexpectedly endorsed same-sex marriage after a year and a half of “evolving” on the subject. Gay rights groups predicted the president’s announcement would have a far-reaching impact on public opinion, in part because Obama described how he came to his own decision, referring to his gay friends and the influence of his young daughters, Sasha and Malia.

Seventy-one percent of Americans have a friend, family member or acquaintance who is gay, according to the Post-ABC survey, compared with 63 percent in 2010 and 59 percent in 1998.

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