Obama Inexcusable on Gay Rights

San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom has built his career on being outspoken — and now, in a new interview with The New York Times’ Maureen Dowd, he’s taking President Obama to task for his position on same-sex marriage.

“I want him to succeed,” Newsom said in the interview. “But I am very upset by what he’s not done in terms of rights of gays and lesbians. I understand it tactically in a campaign, but at this point I don’t know. There is some belief that he actually doesn’t believe in same-sex marriage. But it’s fundamentally inexcusable for a member of the Democratic Party to stand on the principle that separate is now equal, but only on the basis of sexual orientation. We’ve always fought for the rights of minorities and against the whims of majorities.”

Newsom also talks about being “pilloried” by the Democratic Party after he took a stand in San Francisco and allowed gay and lesbian couples to be married. He says it marked the beginning of the end of his career and that he is now thinking of retreating into the background and becoming a wine clerk.