At a press conference shortly after signing the repeal of Don\u2019t Ask Don\u2019t Tell, President Barack Obama was asked about his feelings on gay marriage.\u00a0 The two major items on the agenda of the LGBT community as Barack Obama took office were repeal of DADT and gay marriage.<\/p>\n

In a few short words in response to the question, he spoke volumes.\u00a0 He said, \u201cMy feelings on this issue are constantly evolving.\u201d\u00a0 This phrase is rarely used and yet it is the key element in how we as a people change societal norms.<\/p>\n

Think of the civil rights movement.\u00a0 Interestingly enough, one of the early steps to advance equal rights for African-Americans was President Harry Truman\u2019s decision in 1948 to desegregate the armed forces.\u00a0 This is somewhat parallel to the repeal of Don\u2019t Ask Don\u2019t Tell.<\/p>\n

When Truman integrated the armed forces, most of white America was in no hurry to accelerate the pace of integration.\u00a0 In 1948 the Ku Klux Klan was still very active and lynchings continued in the south until the 1960s<\/a>.\u00a0 The period following World War II brought a second wave of migration of African-Americans from the South to northern and eastern industrial cities.<\/p>\n

Most white Americans were not ready to have African-Americans go to school with their children, work beside them in a factory or office, go to the same restaurants as them, stay in the same hotels as them.\u00a0 The idea of inter-racial marriage was a taboo to some; sinful to others.<\/p>\n

What happened so that white Americans came to accept African-Americans to the extent that they do now?\u00a0 We are not without racial discrimination, but we have made remarkable progress since Harry Truman integrated the armed forces.<\/p>\n

We evolved; that\u2019s what happened.\u00a0 The white citizens among us came to accept rights for African-Americans that would have been unthinkable one or two generations ago.\u00a0 How did the evolution occur?<\/p>\n

A good place to start would be with a simple quote from Dr. Martin Luther King when he was speaking at St. Louis University in the mid-1960s.\u00a0 He said, \u201cLaws may not change the hearts of people but laws will change their habits.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is why Dr. King and so many other civil rights advocates wanted legislation to protect the rights of African-Americans.\u00a0 The law sets boundaries for behavior and when necessary it forced us to change our habits.\u00a0 As individuals and society in general change habits, we evolve.\u00a0 We see things from a different perspective.\u00a0 What was previously unthinkable in time becomes common-place.<\/p>\n

Anyone over forty years of age will remember when they started to see interracial couples.\u00a0 Some were thrilled others were outraged.\u00a0 But what everyone had in common is that they noticed<\/span>.\u00a0 The more we noticed the more it became part of our regular visual scenery.\u00a0 It went from the realm of the unusual to the usual.\u00a0 Most individuals of all races now accept interracial relationships and marriage without question.<\/p>\n

Civil rights evolved in stages from the military to voting rights, to housing, to public accommodations and now to interracial marriage.\u00a0 Who knows what would have happened if Dr. King, John Lewis, and other civil rights leaders had pushed in the 1960s to ensure the legality of interracial marriage.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost certain that it would have been rejected.\u00a0 It\u2019s quite likely that progress in the civil rights movement would have ceased and perhaps reversed.\u00a0 America needed time to evolve and the \u201claddered\u201d approach to extending rights gave people time to adjust.<\/p>\n

Anyone of Barack Obama\u2019s age or older did not grow up with the book Heather Has Two Mommies<\/em>.\u00a0 Initial reactions to that book probably ranged from curiosity, to mild annoyance, to absolute objection.\u00a0 More and more heterosexual Americans are now accepting same-sex marriage.\u00a0 But for most people, acceptance was not immediate; it required time to evolve.\u00a0 When President Obama said that his views on the issue are constantly evolving, he was acknowledging that he was going through a process that most heterosexual Americans have done or are in the process of doing.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible that he is now personally quite comfortable with same-sex marriage, but he needs to evolve more before advocating full legal protection for it.\u00a0 He wants to give the American people more time to live with the repeal of Don\u2019t Ask Don\u2019t Tell and other advances in LGBT rights.\u00a0 Hopefully a time will come when public opinion on same-sex marriage will have evolved as it did with the repeal of DADT and he will be on terra firma<\/em> to advocate legal protection.\u00a0 That will have been evolution.<\/p>\n

President Obama\u2019s use of the word “evolving” can teach us a great deal about issues both public and private.\u00a0 \u201cEvolving\u201d means moving from one place to another.\u00a0 Prima facie, <\/em> that means that there is more than one place where someone can be positioned on an issue.\u00a0 It takes us beyond the mentality of \u201cI\u2019m right and you\u2019re wrong.\u201d\u00a0 It allows us to accept the complexities of life.<\/p>\n

America is a work in progress; we continue to evolve whether our leaders desire it or not.\u00a0 It would be very helpful if the Democratic Party would embrace evolving opinions rather than try to imitate Republicans in locking themselves into rigid positions of judgment.\u00a0 Same-sex marriage is an issue where the Democratic Party can strive to keep pace with public opinion and at the right time jump into the lead to codify another civil liberty.\u00a0 In just eight words, President Obama taught us an important lesson.\u00a0 It would serve all of us well to try to emulate his approach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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