Barack Obama announced officially on Wednesday afternoon that he supports same sex marriage. Obama is the first President of the United States in history to publicly support marriage equality.
"I affirm that same-sex marriages should be able to get married," Obama told ABC News during a special report:
"I hesitated on gay marriage in part because I thought that civil unions would be sufficient," Obama said, adding that he was "sensitive to the fact that for a lot of people the word marriage is some thing that evokes very powerful traditions, religous beliefs and so forth."
Obama said years of talking to friends, family, staff members in a same-sex relation raising families, and military members—who can now openly serve thanks to Obama—changed his mind on the issue.
The President supported same-sex marriages as early as 1996, but as president refused to endorse them, saying his position was "evolving," a hedge that pleased no one. After Vice President Joe Biden's admission on Sunday that he was "absolutely comfortable" with same sex marriages, Obama's lack of position became unsustainable.
Obama's personal beliefs on same sex marriage is legally meaningless, and the administration cannot do much to alter states that have amended their constitutions to prohibit the law. Nonetheless, the imprimatur of Obama's office on the practice will do a lot to push public opinion even further in support of same sex marriage (and would have been helpful somewhat before North Carolina took a vote on the matter).
For the record, Obama's announcement makes the post I wrote three hours ago speculating on whether he would endorse gay marriage before the DNC both wrong and worthless, so thanks for that.
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