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President Obama Announces Support for Gay Marriage

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  • President Obama Announces Support for Gay Marriage

    Obama declares support for gay marriage

    President Obama today announced that he now supports same-sex marriage, reversing his longstanding opposition amid growing pressure from the Democratic base and even his own vice president.
    In an interview with ABC News’ Robin Roberts, the president described his thought process as an “evolution” that led him to this place, based on conversations with his own staff members, openly gay and lesbian service members, and conversations with his wife and own daughters.

    "I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don't Ask Don't Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama told Roberts, in an interview to appear on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Thursday. Excerpts of the interview will air tonight on ABC’s “World News with Diane Sawyer.”

    The president stressed that this is a personal position, and that he still supports the concept of states deciding the issue on their own. But he said he’s confident that more Americans will grow comfortable with gays and lesbians getting married, citing his own daughters’ comfort with the concept.

    “It’s interesting, some of this is also generational,” the president continued. “You know when I go to college campuses, sometimes I talk to college Republicans who think that I have terrible policies on the economy, on foreign policy, but are very clear that when it comes to same sex equality or, you know, believe in equality. They are much more comfortable with it. You know, Malia and Sasha, they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples. There have been times where Michelle and I have been sitting around the dinner table and we’re talking about their friends and their parents and Malia and Sasha, it wouldn’t dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently. It doesn’t make sense to them and frankly, that’s the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective.”

    Roberts asked the president if First Lady Michelle Obama was involved in this decision. Obama said she was, and he talked specifically about his own faith in responding.

    “This is something that, you know, we’ve talked about over the years and she, you know, she feels the same way, she feels the same way that I do. And that is that, in the end the values that I care most deeply about and she cares most deeply about is how we treat other people and, you know, I, you know, we are both practicing Christians and obviously this position may be considered to put us at odds with the views of others but, you know, when we think about our faith, the thing at root that we think about is, not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf, but it’s also the Golden Rule, you know, treat others the way you would want to be treated. And I think 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 as a dad and a husband and hopefully the better I’ll be as president.”

    Previously, Obama has moved in the direction of supporting same-sex marriage but has consistently stopped short of outright backing it. Instead, he’s voiced support for civil unions for gay and lesbian couples that provide the rights and benefits enjoyed by married couples, though not defined as “marriage.” At the same time, the president has opposed efforts to ban gay marriage at the state level, saying that he did not favor attempts to strip rights away from gay and lesbian couples.

    The president’s position became a flashpoint this week, when Vice President Joe Biden pronounced himself “absolutely comfortable” with allowing same-sex couples to wed.

    Obama aides insisted there was no daylight between the positions held by the president and his vice president when it comes to legal rights, but as other prominent Democrats also weighed in in favor of gay marriage, the disconnect became difficult for the White House to explain away.

    The announcement completes a turnabout for the president, who has opposed gay marriage throughout his career in national politics. In 1996, as a state Senate candidate, he indicated support for gay marriage in a questionnaire, but Obama aides later disavowed it and said it did not reflect the candidate’s position.

    In 2004, as a candidate for the US Senate, he cited his own religion in framing his views: “I'm a Christian. I do believe that tradition and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman.”

    He maintained that position through his 2008 presidential campaign, and through his term as president, until today.

    As president in 2010, Obama told ABC’s Jake Tapper that his feelings about gay marriage were “constantly evolving. I struggle with this.” A year later, the president told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, “I’m still working on it.”

    “I probably won't make news right now, George,” Obama said in October 2011. “But I think that there's no doubt that as I see friends, families, children of gay couples who are thriving, you know, that has an impact on how I think about these issues.”

    Obama’s decision has political connotations for the fall.

    The issue divides elements of the Democratic base, with liberals and gay-rights groups eager to see the president go farther, but with gay marriage far less popular among African-American voters.

    Just yesterday, in North Carolina, voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on gay marriage. President Obama carried North Carolina in 2008, and its status as a 2012 battleground was guaranteed by Democrats’ decision to hold their convention in Charlotte this summer.

    Obama’s likely Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, opposes gay marriage, and fought his state’s highest court when Massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriage in 2004, when Romney was governor. Romney said on the campaign trail Monday that he continues to oppose gay marriage.

    “My view is that marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman,” Romney said. “That’s the position I’ve had for some time, and I don’t intend to make any adjustments at this point. … Or ever, by the way.”
    simply awesome
    A lot of Republicans are not racist, but a lot of racists are Republican.

  • #2
    I hate to say it (I agree with same sex marriage), but for those who rail against Romney for being a flip flopper, Obama is no better on this issue. Spare me this "evolving on the issue" stuff. There is a quote from 1996, where Obama says he's for same sex marriage. His views "devolved" when he was running for state Senate and continued to 2008 when he was against it. And then when public opinion shifted the other way...

    Though it is a good thing that he finally declares for it, seeing as how that appeared to be his position since 1996, but decided to lie about it for political purposes (how is this different from Romney now?)
    “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
    - John 13:34-35 (NRSV)

    Comment


    • #3
      Would you like some cheese with that whine, Imran?
      A lot of Republicans are not racist, but a lot of racists are Republican.

      Comment


      • #4
        I'm simply pointing out the hypocrisy of those who go on and on about Romney being a "flip flopper" (heck some said it about McCain in 2008). Do you acknowledge the same about Obama, or are you a hypocrite yourself?
        “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
        - John 13:34-35 (NRSV)

        Comment


        • #5
          Nope, I full accept the fact that Obama is politically pragmatic, just as Romney is.
          A lot of Republicans are not racist, but a lot of racists are Republican.

          Comment


          • #6
            Well then that's fair.

            I just had a conversation with a friend who said Obama is a political pragmatist, but Romney is a flip flopper & if Obama changes his view in favor of rights, he's ok with it (but he'll still go after Romney for changing any of his views).
            “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
            - John 13:34-35 (NRSV)

            Comment


            • #7
              Brave move going into the general election (ignoring his flip flopping on the issue and kind of being pressured into it by Biden's big mouth).
              Click here if you're having trouble sleeping.
              "We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones." - François de La Rochefoucauld

              Comment


              • #8
                Biden's big mouth
                “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
                - John 13:34-35 (NRSV)

                Comment


                • #9
                  "Well, if that is the way the political winds are blowing, let no-one say that I do not blow."

                  Good to see a continuation of the proud MrFun tradition of a massive copy-paste related to gay rights, presented with minimal commentary.
                  1011 1100
                  Pyrebound--a free online serial fantasy novel

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui View Post
                    Biden's big mouth

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Berzerker View Post
                      Let no one say anymore that it's only for entertainment purposes .
                      “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
                      - John 13:34-35 (NRSV)

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Elok View Post
                        "Well, if that is the way the political winds are blowing, let no-one say that I do not blow."

                        Good to see a continuation of the proud MrFun tradition of a massive copy-paste related to gay rights, presented with minimal commentary.
                        Elok
                        John Brown did nothing wrong.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          This is just incredible. President Obama is the first sitting president in American history to publicly support equal marriage rights.
                          A lot of Republicans are not racist, but a lot of racists are Republican.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Yeah, before that he only supported civil-union rights. Like the CEO who just yesterday was discussing "dynamic workforce adjustment," but now all of a sudden he's talking about FIRING people! Whoa, where did that come from?
                            1011 1100
                            Pyrebound--a free online serial fantasy novel

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              he was born when blacks and whites couldn't marry in many states

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