Obama voices support for gay marriage

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) — On the fence no longer, President Barack Obama declared his unequivocal support for gay marriage on Wednesday, a historic announcement that gave the polarizing social issue a more prominent role in the 2012 race for the White House.

The announcement was the first by a sitting president, and Republican challenger Mitt Romney swiftly disagreed with it. “I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman,” he said while campaigning in Oklahoma.

Gay rights advocates cheered Obama’s declaration, which they had long urged him to make. Beyond the words, one man who married his gay partner in Washington, D.C., was stirred to send a $25 contribution to the president’s campaign. “Making a contribution is the best way to say thank you,” said Stuart Kopperman.

Obama revealed his decision after a series of events that made clear the political ground was shifting. He once opposed gay marriage but more recently had said his views were “evolving.”

In an interview with ABC in which he blended the personal and the presidential, Obama said “it wouldn’t dawn” on his daughters, Sasha and Malia, that some of their friends’ parents would be treated differently than others. He said he also thought of aides “who are in incredibly committed monogamous same-sex relationships who are raising kids together.”

Obama added that he thought about “those soldiers or airmen or Marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf, and yet feel constrained even though now that ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is gone because they’re not able to commit themselves in a marriage.”

The president said he was taking a personal position. Aides said the president’s shift would have no impact on current policies and he continues to believe that marriage is an issue best decided by states.

“I have hesitated on gay marriage in part because I thought that civil unions would be sufficient,” Obama said in the interview. He added, “I was sensitive to the fact that for a lot of people the word ‘marriage’ was something that evokes very powerful traditions, religious beliefs and so forth.”

Now, he said, “it is important for me personally to go ahead and affirm that same-sex couples should be able to get married.”

He spoke on the heels of a pair of events that underscored the sensitivity of an issue that has long divided the nation.

Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview on Sunday he is completely comfortable with gays marrying, a pronouncement that instantly raised the profile of the issue. White House aides insisted the vice president hadn’t said anything particularly newsworthy, but gay rights groups cited Biden’s comments in urging the president to announce his support.

On Tuesday, voters in North Carolina — a potential battleground in the fall election — approved an amendment to the state constitution affirming that marriage may only be a union of a man and a woman.

Additionally, several of the president’s biggest financial backers are gay, and some have prodded him publicly to declare his support for same-sex marriage.

Senior administration officials said Obama came to the conclusion gay couples should have the right to legally marry earlier this year and had planned to make his views known publicly before the Democratic National Convention in early September. They conceded Biden’s comments accelerated the timeline, but said the vice president’s remarks were impromptu and not part of a coordinated effort to soften the ground for a shift by the president. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations.

As recently as eight years ago, conservatives in several states maneuvered successfully to place questions relating to gay marriage on the election day ballot as a way of boosting turnout for President George W. Bush’s re-election.

Now, nationwide polling suggests increasing acceptance of gay marriage. In a national survey released earlier this month, Gallup reported 50 percent of those polled said it should be legal, and 48 percent were opposed. Democrats favored by a margin of roughly 2-1, while Republicans opposed it by an even bigger margin. Among independents, 57 percent expressed support, and 40 percent were opposed.

Whatever the polls, the political crosscurrents are tricky, and administration officials conceded as much.

Some top aides argued that gay marriage is toxic at the ballot box in competitive states like North Carolina and said the vote there this week shows that opposition to the issue is a rallying point for Republicans.

Shifting his emphasis, even briefly, could open Obama up to Republican criticism that he is taking his eye off the economy, voters’ No. 1 issue.

Yet some prominent gay donors have said publicly they wanted Obama to announce his support for gay marriage. Other Democratic supporters claim Obama’s decision could energize huge swaths of the party, including young people. He also could appeal to independent voters.

By day’s end Wednesday, the Obama campaign had emailed a clip of the interview and a personal statement from the president to its vast list of supporters, drawing attention to his stance.

The decision also creates an area of clear contrast between Obama and his Republican rival as he argues that he’s delivered on the change he promised four years ago.

Obama said he sometimes talks with college Republicans on his visits to campuses, and while they oppose his policies on the economy and foreign policy, “when it comes to same sex equality, or, you know, sexual orientation, that they believe in equality. They are more comfortable with it.”

Maggie Gallagher, co-founder of the National Organization for Marriage and a leading supporter of the constitutional amendment approved in North Carolina on Tuesday, said she welcomed Obama’s announcement at the same time she disagreed with it.

“Politically, we welcome this,” she said. “We think it’s a huge mistake. President Obama is choosing the money over the voters the day after 61 percent of North Carolinians in a key swing state demonstrated they oppose gay marriage.”

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi instantly sought political gain from the president’s announcement. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee issued an email in her name that asked recipients to “stand with President Obama.” Such requests are often followed by a solicitation for campaign donations.

Obama said first lady Michelle Obama also was involved in his decision and joins him in supporting gay marriage.

“In the end, the values that I care most deeply about and she cares most deeply about is how we treat other people,” he said.

Acknowledging that his support for same-sex marriage may rankle religious conservatives, Obama said he thinks about his faith in part through the prism of the Golden Rule — treating others the way you would want to be treated.

“That’s what we try to impart to our kids and that’s what motivates me as president and I figure the most consistent I can be in being true to those precepts, the better I’ll be as a dad and a husband and hopefully the better I’ll be as president,” Obama said.

Six states — all in the Northeast except Iowa — and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriages. In addition, two other states have laws that are not yet in effect and may be subject to referendums.

More like this story

wyriontair 1 year, 1 month ago

His position "evolved" into support to try and garner votes.

asb 1 year, 1 month ago

There's a fair chance that Obama already had the majority of the LGBT vote. This might actually cost him votes. After all, so many of America's salivating homophobes were fans of Obama before yesterday, surely a few are now seeing him in a new, rainbow colored, light.

spelchek 1 year, 1 month ago

Funny how a president accuses republicans of "social Darwinism" when it's he, who is the one that's "evolving".

gofish 1 year, 1 month ago

I'm happy that the debate is over something other than abortion. However, I think Obama's "coming out of the closet" will cost him more votes than he will retain or gain. It's ironic, and sad, but I think abortion is more palitable to the masses. Perhaps because it is a single event, rather than a lifestyle.

tonto_goldberg 1 year, 1 month ago

I believe the idealogues on both sides will continue to be frustrated that "their" candidate does not take positions that fully comply with all of their desires. In reality, we who wish to vote for someone will have to settle for the candidate that either meets more of their ideals or fails fewer of their personal litmus tests than the other.

spelchek 1 year, 1 month ago

So, in 2008 Mr. Obama was "anti-gay" as you would have it, yet you still voted for him? Kind of blows your republican voting theory right out of the water; doesn't it?

spelchek 1 year, 1 month ago

"But he wasn't anti-gay in 2008." = Wrong

Yes Mr. Chase I was, Bravo! But you see, I'm evolving just like the President.

spelchek 1 year, 1 month ago

You have zero clue of my sexual preferences so............stop speculating.

Sequoia 1 year, 1 month ago

It is an interesting question as to how this will affect voter turnout. A lot of hardcore liberals are lukewarm about Obama for the same reasons the hardcore right is lukewarm about Romney--insufficient ideological purity. Perhaps its a wash in this election.

In the long run, though, this puts Obama on the right side of history (and conservatism), and forces Republicans to either modernize or paint themselves into a corner for yet another lost cause.

True conservatives favor gay rights because, legally, it is simpler and less invasive, and because of the principles of religous freedom and equal protection. The distinction between hetero and homosexual marriage is a religious one that is improper for the government to make in the application of tax and family law.

Sequoia 1 year, 1 month ago

Not to mention social stability. Married households tend to be more financially productive and stable.

JCLifer 1 year, 1 month ago

Yeah, homo marriage might destroy the sanctity of marriage and oncrease to divorce rate, as well as partners who fool around. We got to protect a good thing.

MO4LIFE 1 year, 1 month ago

Grace what country do you live in that "gays have the right to marry just like everyone else" At last count i believe there are only like 6 states that allow gay marriage. Just more of the same old Grace-believe factrs that you pull out of thin air. Gays are not any more or less than straight people either.

fo3angels 1 year, 1 month ago

I live in the USA, where the constitution is the supreme law of the land (Article 6, clause 2), where all states are required to give full faith and credit to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of the other states (article 4, section 1), where liberty is not to be infringed without due process of law - due process requiring that all are treated equally (5th amendment), where all persons are to be afforded equal protection under the law - note that it is all persons, not all citizens, residents, or any qualification of what makes a person eligible for the equal protection (14th amendment), where separate but equal is inherently unequal (Brown v. the Kansas City Board of Education), where marriage is a fundamental right not to be infringed for arbitrary reasons such as (notably not limited to) race (Loving v. Virginia), and where freedom of religion means that you are entitled to your religious beliefs, but you are not entitled to impose your religious beliefs on anyone else. For the record, in 1967 when the SCOTUS decided Loving v. Virginia, 70% of the population was against inter-skin-color marriage, and I believe it was 17 states that had laws against it. Being popular does not make you right in the eyes of the Constitution.

Gabrielle 1 year, 1 month ago

sounds like a really cool place to live!

JCLifer 1 year, 1 month ago

Who cares? Let'em marry. They arent hurting anyone. If you are right, God will take care if them in the end.

Sequoia 1 year, 1 month ago

True conservatives, and this president, know that the American idea works best when we invite all our citizens to buy into it.

Phony conservatives spend a lot of time talking about who doesn't belong.

MO4LIFE 1 year, 1 month ago

Which is why they don't talk about minorities and gays because they feel that they don't belong just like u!

MO4LIFE 1 year, 1 month ago

Right I am only going off of reading your comments. Like when thereis a crime your comments usually tell police to go to Lincoln and get the criminals! or Time to get the thugs out of here..etc. But when it is a white person crime you have nothing negative to say Grace the proof is in the pudding!

PatsyDecline 1 year, 1 month ago

As the Wall Street Banksters systemically ripping off pension funds and manipulating markets, selling toxic debt to widowers....

As our corporate owned governments are selling out our childrens future into a lifetime of debt slavery.....

It is issues like gay marriage which will "destroy America".

Heh. These shiny brown boots are made for walking!

MO4LIFE 1 year, 1 month ago

Then get to stepping! Go live in Canada! OOPS they allow same sex marriage along with a lot of modern nations!

PatsyDecline 1 year, 1 month ago

I'm sorry. I think you missed my point.

Have a nice day.

JMO 1 year, 1 month ago

I think you needed a question mark Patsy. Sarcasm doesn't translate well to print.