Marriage Equality Keeps Gays from Boisterous Support of Either Candidate

This story also appears here: NYU Pavement Pieces


The presidential candidates opposition to full-fledged marriage equality has kept many gay and lesbian New Yorkers from wholeheartedly jumping on the Obama or McCain bandwagon.

“You won’t get it with either one. I feel bad saying this, but I’m still undecided,” said Michael Cooper, 28, at Stonewall Inn in the West Village where a smattering of gays gathered to watch the third and final debate between Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Sen. John McCain (D-AZ).

“For the most part, they sound the same,” said Cooper as he sipped some liquor at the famed bar.

Stonewall Inn has been a political focal point for decades. In the late 1960’s, when gay bars were often terrorized by police officers with nightly raids, the patrons of Stonewall fought back.

It was on June 28, 1969, when eight police officers attempted to raid the bar, the ensuing “Stonewall riots” ignited the modern gay rights movement.

Throughout the debate Cooper would criticize Obama and McCain equally.

He said Obama’s “pay as you go” plan for new budgeting rules in spending sounded like he was ignorant of the rest of America already living paycheck to paycheck.

He said McCain’s policies sounded like the Bush Administration’s and derided him as “McSame.”

“They are just as silly as the rest of them,” said 48-year-old bartender Chuck Streeper about both of the senators’ policy toward marriage equality.

Both candidates have said they support civil unions, but refused to support marriage, much to the dismay of many in the LGBT community.

Streeper acknowledged that most people that came into the bar were voting for Obama, but he had to follow his own heart: “I’m voting for Nader.”

Rick Street, 50, who was visiting from Washington the bar with his partner, felt marriage for gays would be legalized under an Obama presidency.

His friends and PFLAG (Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays) parents, Kathy and Robert Reim, didn’t agree. “We think [civil unions] are serious head roads.”

As the debate drew to a close, Michael Cooper got closer to a decision: “I’ve flip-flopped so many times, but I think I’m actually leaning towards McCain.”

Citing McCain’s plan to drill in Alaska, Cooper summed up his feeling: “The guy just makes more sense.”