As of today, the Obama administration announced to immigration officials that "family relationships" include same-sex couples. This means that in regards to deportation cases, one partner cannot be deported if the other is a citizen. This is definitely a step forward in the national recognition of gay and lesbian couples (that I believe eventually, if not soon, will be a social norm across the country). This will hopefully prompt other states to follow suit in terms of providing more equality for LGBT citizens.
Obama clearly seems to be campaigning hard for votes from the Latino and LGBT constituencies and this new act seems to encompass these groups quite conveniently. I think this will greatly help his standings in the polls with the Latino group most notably. Obama already has a large number of LGBT supporters, while the votes of Latinos are more on-the-margin and could go either way. Despite my thought, Gallup had an interesting poll which reflects that Latino voters do not always consider immigration as the most important issue when they cast their votes.
Despite the data above, I do think that this inclusive act enacted by the Obama administration will push some on-the-bubble Latino voters over to the democratic party in the November election.
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I agree that President Obama's support of same-sex couples will definitely improve his current standings in the LGBT community and help increase his lead in the upcoming 2012 Presidential Election, as examiner.com notes. It should not be a surprise that the media constantly spins Latinos voters' spins on immigration into disproportion. Regardless, this new policy will surely do more good than harm to Latinos and encourage them to support President Obama.
On the Obama administration's new policy, LGBT constituencies will surely see this move as a sign that the president truly supports them. If we go by recent trends, like in huffingtonpost.com , national recognition of gay and lesbian couples seems to be becoming more popular as time goes on.
In the end, the Obama administration is making an effective political move by increasing their support of same-sex couples and will more likely than not scoop up some valuable votes from the Latino and LGBT communities.
I find this announcement by the Obama administration amusingly clever as they aim to kill two birds with one stone by simultaneously pleasing both the Hispanics and the LGBT community.
As for the results of the Gallup poll, I believe that the primary reason that Hispanics don't consider immigration as the most important issue is because there are a substantial number of Hispanics in America that are U.S.-born citizens.
Similarly, the 8% difference between the surveyed Hispanics and Hispanic registered voters could be because Hispanic registered voters are obviously all citizens, so the issue of immigration may not directly affect them as much as the general Hispanic population in the United States.
Creating this minor link between immigration and LGBT rights may prove to be an interesting perspective to throw into the mix during the presidential debates.
It's already clear that President Obama and Romney have very different views on immigration. Romney has advocated for modeling U.S. immigration policies after Arizona law which 80% of Latinos oppose. Meanwhile, Paul Ryan opposes the DREAM Act that President Obama is fighting for.
I would be very surprised if President Obama doesn't take aim at Romney's stringent immigration policies during the upcoming debates. Obama's recent actions such as this new immigration policy have a good chance of gaining him votes; meanwhile, Romney appears to be alienating himself from both Latino and LGBT voters.
The Obama administration's inclusion of same-sex couples in "family relationships" dealing with deportation cases is a subtle move that greatly increases the potential for national recognition of LGBT rights. As Obama places the LGBT community on the same level as "traditional" familial members (where they should be, anyway), he defies the opinion made by conservative leaders that gays would taint, for example, the institution of marriage, and that gays, opinionated by those more misguided, are immoral. Hopefully then, these opinions will eventually become extinct and Obama's decision definitely progresses toward that. Though this decision is not directly associated with LGBT rights, rather with a quite different issue, I agree that the implications it carries makes it a monumental step for the recognition of LGBT rights.
It's interesting that Obama seems to be working harder to gain more support whereas Mitt Romney seems to be working more to avoid losing support (since he has that tendency of sticking his foot in his mouth), yet the two are still very close in the polls (at least, this recent Gallup poll: http://www.gallup.com/poll/150743/Obama-Romney.aspx).
On another note, I think it's excellent that the rights of the LGBT community are slowly but surely being strengthened, and I'd like to believe that this is not simply a tactic to gain votes in "likely areas," but rather simply an attempt at doing what is best for the country regardless of how the polls will be affected.
I think that Obama's decision would be effective in getting him support from Latinos despite that the issue is not at the top of their list. I think it's likely that, as Sally said, many Latino voters are not as concerned because they are already citizens and probably don't worry too much about deportation. However, they probably still know some people in their communities who would benefit from this act. And regardless whether the act directly affects them, it shows favor towards immigrants and their race group, which they probably identify with.
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