President Barack Obama’s views on same-sex marriage have evolved. Obama, who once opposed same-sex marriage, now supports it.
“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.
“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, sexual orientation, that they believe in equality,” he said.
According to a Tuesday Gallup Poll, half of Americans believe same-sex marriages should be recognized as legally valid. Another 48 percent maintain same-sex marriages should not be legally recognized.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney affirmed his opposition on Wednesday to same-sex marriage, further polarizing the politicians.
“And I do not favor civil unions if they are identical to marriage other than by name,” Romney said during a visit to Fort Lupton, Colo., according to a report in CNN. “My view is the domestic partnership benefits, hospital visitation rights and the like are appropriate, but that the others are not.”
Maggie Gallagher, co-founder of the National Organization for Marriage and director of the Culture War Victory Fund, has two perspectives on Obama’s announcement. On the one hand, morally this is good because lying to the American people is always wrong, she says, and Obama has come clean that he is for gay marriage.
“Politically, we welcome this. We think it’s a huge mistake. President Obama is choosing the money over the voters the day after 61 percent of North Carolinians in a key swing state demonstrated they oppose gay marriage,” Gallagher says. “We now have clear choice between Romney and Obama, and we look forward to demonstrating in November that it’s a bad idea for a national candidate to support gay marriage. Marriage is a winning issue for the GOP.”
Stay tuned to Charisma News for reactions from Christian legal advocates.
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