Just a few days after Vice President and lovable uncle Joe Biden announced his support of same-sex marriage, and a day after the North Carolina amendment banning same-sex marriage was passed, the POTUS himself declared that his views on the issues have “evolved.”
In an interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts, he described his opinions and how they have changed over the years, and the conversations with his wife, daughters, openly gay service members, and staffers that have guided him to officially affirm his support of same-sex marriage. He told Roberts,
“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.”
President Obama has been criticized by the political left and LGBT community since he assumed office for his soft, almost non-opinion on the issue of same-sex marriage. He stressed that this opinion was a personal one, but that the states still have the right to decide it for themselves.
That does’t downplay the importance of the statement, though. President Obama is the first president to advocate same-sex marriage, and in doing so, pushes the issues further into public discussion and (hopefully) acceptance.
You can watch clips from the interview here, or watch it on Diane Sawyer tonight.
(Image via Wikimedia Commons)
