President Barack Obama headlined a get-out-the-vote rally for Democratic Governor Deval Patrick in Boston on Oct. 16. The rally took place at the Hynes Convention Center in the city's Back Bay neighborhood, drawing thousands of supporters.
About 10 minutes into Obama's speech, a handful of protestors, advocating increased federal funding for HIV/AIDS, heckled the president and raised a sign reading "Keep the Promise: Fight Global AIDS."
The protestors were local college students "fighting for global health equity," said Arjus Suri, a first-year student at the Harvard Medical School. "Candidate Obama promised $50 billion to fight global AIDS." But "he's delivered on only one-tenth of that promise."
During the president's remarks Obama mentioned his administration's increased funding for HIV/AIDS.
But not enough for Suri. Yes, " [ w ] hen the president said he funded AIDS a little bit more, he was right," Suri said. "One-tenth is not enough. An inch is not a mile. It's not enough to pay lip service by saying he's funded more."
Also inside the convention center, gay-rights activists from the grass roots group Join the Impact MA reproached Obama for balking on same-sex civil marriage.
Boston College law student Paul Sousa shouted out several times during Obama's remarks: "Mr. President, stop the bigotry! Support marriage equality!," "Do you also oppose atheist marriage?" "Would you want a civil union?"
The rub for Sousa is Obama's reliance on religion to justify civil unions but stopping short at marriage equality.
In fact, during an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Obama told the newspaper, "I'm a Christian. And so, although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do believe that tradition, and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman."
But for Sousa, civil marriage is the issue, not religious marriage.
Challenging Obama over marriage equality is a slight change of tactics among local activists. In previous Obama protests, representatives from Get Equal heckled the president over not doing enough to lift the ban on openly gay service in the military and for not pushing hard enough for federal legislation to ban sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace.
Along the campaign trail, many Democrats have shied away from the president. But the Massachusetts governor has embraced him. They are close friends, and both hail from Chicago's South Side.
Patrick, an ardent backer of gay equality, is in tight race with a Republican challenger. Both candidates favor gay rights, but the GOP's Charlie Baker has offended many LGBT voters by dismissing a transgender-rights measure, saying he would veto "the bathroom bill."
The rally came just 10 days after 300 LGBT community leaders and allies raised more than $160,000 for the Democratic governor, who is seeking a second four-year term.
Activists from Join the Impact and advocates of increased HIV/AIDS funding were clear—Patrick was not their target.
A student at Fisher College, Ian Struthers of Join the Impact said he wanted to hear the governor and to show support for the president.
Still, "I wanted to tell Obama that I want the same rights as everyone else. I want and end to DADT, and an inclusive ENDA so that I can have job security. I work and pay taxes and am like everyone else—except that I date men."
Harvard College senior Krishna Rabhu explained his reasons for protesting. "It's not the governor. We support Deval Patrick. We wanted Obama's ear."
Sending Obama a message for marriage equality, Sousa said, "Best comes from Massachusetts," referring to the commonwealth's status as the first state to allow gays to wed legally in 2004. Opposite-sex marriage has not suffered in the last six years. In fact, Massachusetts retains the lowest divorce rate in the country.
