(CNN) — President Barack Obama, who previously indicated his views were “evolving,” said Wednesday that he supports same-sex marriage, raising the political stakes on an issue in which Americans are evenly split.
The announcement, long sought by supporters of same-sex marriage, puts Obama squarely at odds with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
“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 said in an interview with ABC News. The president once opposed same-sex marriage.
A Gallup Poll released Tuesday indicated half of Americans believe same-sex marriages should be recognized by law as valid, with 48% saying such marriages should not be legal.
Obama was “disappointed” by Tuesday’s vote on the issue in North Carolina, which he described as discriminatory against gays and lesbians, a spokesman said earlier Wednesday.
North Carolina voted to implement a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, which was already prohibited by state law. Supporters of the measure pushed for the constitutional amendment, arguing that it was needed to ward off future legal challenges.
He’s only doing this to ”save” his job.
Excellent to hear Doug has touched Base, Is a relief or me here in good old England, but I can only begin to imagine what’s its like for the Hero’s family and friends. Here you here we have a guy, hero, soldier, admired and repected as a soldier by the majority of the American Public, for living his life serving his country to promote the rights and freedoms of all US citizens and the Rest of the world, and good old Obama affirms his belief that men and women like our man Dough could find love and settle own and want to get married. Well that’s about time!!! Shame those other selfish homophobes who enjoy the rights of a of a ‘typical’ heterosexual lifestyle, can’t find it in themselves to accept the same. It’s less like gay rights in my book and more like equal rights . What do You think. ??
If the GOP tries to make this a major issue come November then they are going to lose. THey need to realize that they are on the wrong side of this issue and the American public is quickly changing their opinion on the issue. Sooner or later, the Republicans are going to find themselves on the wrong side of history.
I think it was quite ovious for quite some time that Obama truly supported, or wanted to support gay marriage, but he always said his views were “evolving” simply because he didn’t want to alienate the social conservatives. Well it’s about time that he stops using the LGBTQ community as a political football and instead stick up for all Americans because he knows that it is the right thing to do.
I seriously thought Obama was going to wait until after the election the finally come out and support gay marriage, but I guess it seems as if Biden jumped the gun on this one. It’s good to know that he’s finally saying what he truly believes.