Video: President Obama Supports Same-Sex Marriage
President Barack Obama sat down with Robin Roberts of ABC just one day after the controversial passage of Amendment One in North Carolina and finally spoke about gay marriage, something he has notoriously dodged throughout his presidency. In the interview the President finally came out in support of same-sex marriage. The video can be seen here.
This comes just after Joe Biden went on Meet the Press this weekend saying he himself was in favor of gay marriage. Biden told host David Gregory; “I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men marrying women are entitled to the same exact rights. All the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly I don’t see much of a distinction beyond that.”
Obama, who many thought would skirt the issue, told Roberts this afternoon; "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."
The President went on to say; "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.”
President Obama is now the first American President to support same-sex marriage while in office.
