Here are the three biggest hand-wringing fears/misnomers people have had about gay marriage, even those who support it:

1. This unimportant issue will cost Obama re-election!

2. Marriage equality would have happened by now, if not for those on-the-down low, religious, self-hating, homophobic black folks!

3. Marriage equality will never pass when it comes up for a vote, because it never has before, and therefore never will, especially in a state with a lot black voters!

Ever since President Obama came out for same-sex marriage, all three have been proven to be utter bullshit. Let's explore.

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Pete Souza/The White House

It's fair to call it the Obama Effect: leaders in the black community, old and young, political and cultural, are coming out of the closet to back same-sex marriage. And they are a motley crew, from the legacy NAACP, to the rapper 50 Cent, who just a couple years ago suggested that if you're a man "and you don't eat pu**y just kill yourself damn it. The world will be a better place." (He'd also once tweeted, "Perez Hilton calld me douchebag [sic] so I had my homie shoot up a gay wedding. wasnt his but still made me feel better.")

And now 50 tacitly supports gays getting married.

The Obama Effect.

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We thought the Beach Boys were all about fun in the sun; the nice beach tides and "Good Vibrations;" and a whole bunch of fun until daddy takes the T-Bird away. Apparently not. 

This little gem released by the forerunners of "professional" celebrity journalism, TMZ, captures on tape remarks made by Bruce Johnston. For those of you who don't know him, he's one of the background singers on "California Girls." He's also not a big fan of Obama. And he is absolutely vocal about it.

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Steven Thrasher

Brian Lehrer on the air

After publishing our piece yesterday "5 Reasons Why Touré Is Wrong On Blacks, Gay Marriage and Obama," we had the chance to talk about the president's new support for marriage equality with WNYC's Brian Lehrer.

We took calls from black listeners and talked to Lehrer about the many reasons why we believe black angst over gay rights is overplayed and how we strongly believe there will be no major fall out for Obama with black voters. Take a listen.

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Not President Obama anymore! (Just congress, until they repeal DOMA. Also, maybe SCOTUS.)

President Obama has told ABC news that he supports the right for same-sex couples to get legally married.

Obama told ABC, in an interview where he appeared relaxed and calm (even if he'd been pushed into this moment due to Joe Biden's loose lips on Sunday, Andrew Cuomo's bro-date yesterday, and the White House Press Corps's full on assault on Jay Carney), that he believed that, "It's important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married."

The Voice reached out to four New Yorkers for their immediate reactions: Blogger Joe Jervis of Joe My God, New York native (and North Carolina resident) Pam Spaulding of Pam's House Blend, and both Dean Dafis, Director of Legal Affairs and Community Liaison for Marriage Equality USA, as well as that group's Co-President Cathy Marino-Thomas.

Obama has many LGBT supporters, and Democratic voters overwhelming favor same-sex marriage equality, so they are taking the news (in our small sampling) with a mixture of unabashed glee and a little regret that it didn't happen sooner.

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Will Obama rise to level of LBJ in using the bully pulpit to fight for civil rights?

Update: President Obama has indeed come out of the closet, telling ABC news that he does, in fact, support the right for same-sex couples to get married. Read our report, with reactions from New Yorkers, here.

It's been a rough few days for President Obama on the gay marriage question, although he really has no one to blame but himself.

President Obama has been "evolving" on the issue for some time now, reportedly endorsing full same-sex marriage equality in 1996, before rolling back his stance to a wishy-washy, "everything but the word marriage" position which advocated for full equal civil rights through civil unions or domestic partnerships. (Still, he didn't put a lot of effort into this.)

The problem is, anything short of the word "marriage" (or the words "civil marriage" to be more precise and less likely to wade into the tricky arena of separating church and state) lacks full equal rights under the law.

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Sam Levin

Mayor Bloomberg, on the SNL set today, takes questions from reporters.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg, a strong supporter of same-sex marriage, decided not to take a position today on President Obama's stance on marriage equality, which has made headlines this week.

But Bloomberg is still a big fan of gay marriage!

After a reporter from BuzzFeed asked the mayor -- who was holding a press conference at (where else?) the set of Saturday Night Live -- whether it's time Obama openly supports same-sex marriage, Bloomberg said, "You have to ask the president. He's gotta decide what he believes and what he wants to do."

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Albany Proper

President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Albany tomorrow and a local strip club isn't missing the chance to cash in on the visit by inviting the Secret Service to enjoy some topless (hopefully legal) entertainment.

Shenanigans, located on Central Avenue in Albany, is your run-of-the-mill strip club (which we may or may not have visited in our younger years). From our experience, there's no sex in the champagne room, so a trip to the club might keep any horny Secret Servicemen from exchanging cash for sex (or failing to exchange cash for sex, which is what got a few of Obama's protectors in so much trouble down in Columbia a few weeks ago).

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An example of "cool."

Yesterday, the Voice brought you some sad-making news: rather than give us meaningful material on which to base our votes, Barack Obama will probably serenade us with more slow-jams and Mitt Romney will keep acting like he has never had fun in his life. Ever.

So it goes in American politics (who expects, like, answers and stuff?), but the Washington Post has been arguing that Mitt's seriousness might work to his advantage -- especially among the nation's youth.

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In keeping with the great American tradition of blowing smoke up voters' asses, both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney do not appear like they're going to level with us anytime soon -- though our country sorely needs it, as Slate's John Dickerson pointed out.

But what they lack in candor they might try substituting with coolness and seriousness, respectively.

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