NPR: 'Obama's Awkward Dance on Gay Marriage'

NPR notes that when, on Thursday, Barack Obama heads to Manhattan, he will be the first sitting president to have a LGBT fundraiser. It will be against a backdrop of a ferocious fight in Albany about whether to legalize gay marriage in New York State.

Mr. Obama's supporters say he has done more for gay rights than any President in US history. But John Aravosis, who edits the liberal website Americablog, argues that history is the wrong yardstick.
     "The point is, how much of a civil rights hero you are is determined by the times you live in," says Aravosis.
     "If you defended the rights of African-Americans to swim in your pool in the 1950s, you'd be a huge visionary and we'd give you a huge attaboy for that," Aravosis says. By 1970, the same views would hardly be noteworthy even though they would be ahead of every previous generation.