‘Love is love,” said United States President Barack Obama in his speech hailing the US Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage.
While staying at a hotel in Los Angeles, I noticed that many of the hotel’s guests who watched Obama’s speech on TV in the lobby had a look that seemed to question if Obama was truly convinced of what he was saying. Many thought that his body language contradicted the message behind his words.
It seems Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe agrees. In a weekly interview with the national radio station, Mugabe said that he was planning to travel to Washington DC to propose to Obama! Mugabe’s statements drove many republicans to taunt Obama regarding this embarrassing incident. At the hotel lounge, I asked two students from the University of California what they thought of the Supreme Court’s ruling. One of the students described it as good news, while the other was a bit more direct, saying that she supported the ruling because that is what freedom is all about.
Many analysts in various US papers said that Obama enjoyed the highest poll ratings of his presidency during the last week of June, and some have even said that Obama has achieved for Americans what no former president has achieved before — Obamacare health insurance for the poor and middle-classes, the recovery of the economy following the global economic crisis, a drop in unemployment rates, the creation of new job opportunities, and most recently — same-sex marriage.
One cannot help but wonder why such a ruling came about during Obama’s second presidential term. One analyst indicated that if it had been during the first term, his chances of being reelected for a second term would have been slim, as he would lose the votes of Christians, particularly the Catholics, Muslims and Arabs.
However, there were other questions worthy of discussion, including those raised by analysts in US papers: Was it truly a good week for Obama? Had Obama achieved for US citizens what his predecessors could not?
The initial answer is no. Some think that Obama may have had resounding success on one or two issues, while completely failing in others.
The US is a strong country, excelling in the field of education, health care, modern technology, economy, space exploration and military power. It is a country established as a result of a pioneering and historic decision. In the 1960s, the US introduced the immigration law. This law dealt with receiving immigrants from every corner of the earth without discrimination, under the slogan “skill not skin”. This led to hundreds of thousands of skilled individuals making their way to the US in search of job and investment opportunities and an innovative environment.
It is in that environment that the American dream was fostered.
The September 11 attacks were a very big blow to immigrants in the US, particularly Arabs, Muslims and some Asians, some of who were traders, investors, administrators, university professors and students. It was a big blow due to security procedures implemented by the US to “protect America from terrorism”.
Today, 14 years later, comes the US Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage, which according to some officials was an even stronger blow to US immigrants. This indicates that the US will be taking a number of steps in the future that will bring unwanted changes in the social, economic and politics spheres.
If they can, the Republicans will strive to ensure that the ruling is nothing more than ink on paper and will be forgotten with time. However, anyone looking at the number of gays in America will realise that this will not be so easy, now that it has become a law.
Moreover, there is something negative happening behind the scenes in Virginia: A draft law that is attempting to include homosexuality and gender identity lessons in the curriculum of schools for middle and high school students.
I asked a Somali-American taxi driver who was dropping me to the airport about his opinion on the draft law and the subjects being included in school curriculums. The taxi driver, who has lived in the US for 25 years, said that the Muslim community in Virginia, which also includes some of his relatives, decided to pull their children from those schools and he added that some are thinking of setting up their own schools, which might be a practical and effective step. He pointed out that some who already have US citizenship are taking it a step further and thinking of returning to their homeland.
An Irish man’s tweet was the most retweeted in social networking sites in the US. He said that 30 years ago, when he arrived in the US, being gay was abnormal. Ten years later, it was condemned only by religions. And a further 10 years later, it became accepted in some parts of the US. Today, it is legal. “I would like to leave the US before it becomes mandatory!”
Mohammad Hassan Al Harbi is a writer and journalist.
