Someone wrote recently that the White House seems to get a case of "gay panic" whenever they deal with gay civil rights issues. And it's a brilliant observation. It's as temporary insanity kicks in, colored by fear, whenever the gays get on the White House agenda. Case in point: Last week's brouhaha over senior adviser Melody Barnes having kinda sorta endorsed gay marriage at a public talk she gave in Boston. The White House freaked out, as usual, and made sure that a private video of Barnes' talk wasn't released for days.
Sam Stein at Huffington Post has more.
[W]hen one of Obama's top advisers, Melody Barnes, suggested that she personally supported gay marriage before a crowd at Boston College last week, it could have been a minor story. But it became a bigger one when the White House press office responded defensively, first insisting that no such support for gay marriage had been offered and then not signing off on the release of the video of Barnes's appearance until the dead-news hours of Friday afternoon....
[F]or a White House that has been extremely cautious when it comes to cultural issues, the endorsement of gay marriage by even one official apparently presented a very unwelcome diversion.
Indeed, even after the video surfaced, the White House seemed particularly eager to move on to a new topic. The Huffington Post asked several times to talk with Barnes for this piece. The requests were denied.
