Is America Ready For a Gay President?

Giving lie to the notion that all straight, old, white men are homophobic whackjobs (see: Republican Senator John McCain), former president Jimmy Carter told a reporter that he thought America might be ready to put a gay or lesbian in the White House.

That prompted New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd to write about the topic, including asking Democratic Congressman Barney Frank and Bill Maher, the latter telling Dowd, he didn't think we were:

Can you imagine how much a gay president would have to overcompensate to please the macho ninnies who control our national debate? Women like Hillary have to do it, Obama had to do it because he’s black and liberal, but a gay president? He’d have to nuke something the first week.

Frank (gay himself, in case that news somehow had missed you) was no more optimistic, if more serious about the issues around a gay president:

It’s one thing to have a gay person in the abstract. It’s another to see that person as part of a living, breathing couple. How would a gay presidential candidate have a celebratory kiss with his partner after winning the New Hampshire primary? The sight of two women kissing has not been as distressful to people as the sight of two men kissing.

Because of the Defense of Marriage Act, he added, “it’s not clear that a gay president could use federal funds to buy his husband dinner. Would his partner have to pay rent in the White House? There would be no Secret Service protection for the paramour.”

While Maher's quip is funny, and no doubt has some truth to it, I love Frank pointing out the ridiculousness of DOMA and the sorts of things it prohibits.

Rep. Barney Frank

Personally, I think we are a long way from electing an openly gay president (rumor has it James Buchanan was gay, and then there are those stories of President Lincoln having had two close relationships with men) and I think the only way it could happen any time soon for a gay man was if the man elected was single. Even then, a gay presidential candidate would have to carry every single "blue" part of the country, as I can't see him getting a single electoral vote in anywhere remotely "red."

I also think Frank is absolutely right that that too much of America couldn't handle their president kissing another man, much less actually living together in the White House.

That being said, today's out legislators are paving the way for that to eventually happen. Dowd talks to Democratic Representative Tammy Baldwin who discusses taking her former girlfriend to White House events. She explains how just having a lesbian couple at the event normalizes the idea of gay relationships, and I think she's right. And as we have more gay representatives (and eventually senators and governors — not counting McGreevey!), and big city mayors, eventually the idea of a gay president won't seem such a stretch.