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Here’s a look back at the various positions he has held on the issue: from
appearing to support the unions as a young state senate candidate, opposing
them outright as a matter of faith in 2004, to suggesting a shift in line
with public opinion:
FEBRUARY 1996: “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight
efforts to prohibit such marriages,” reads a typed, signed statement from
then-Illinois state senate candidate Obama in response to a questionnaire by
the Chicago LGBT newspaper “Outlines.” White House Communications
Director Dan Pfeiffer later publicly disavowed the statement, claiming in
June 2011 that the questionnaire was “actually filled out by someone else.”
OCTOBER 2004: “What I believe is that marriage is between a man and a woman
… What I believe, in my faith, is that a man and a woman, when they get
married, are performing something before God, and it’s not simply the two
persons who are meeting,” then-U.S. Senate candidate Obama said in an
interview with WTTW Chicago public television.
“That doesn’t mean that that necessarily translates into a position on
public policy or with respect to civil unions. What it does mean is that we
have a set of traditions in place that, I think, need to be preserved, but I
also think we need to make sure that gays and lesbians have the same set of
basic rights that are in place.
“I don’t think marriage is a civil right,” Obama said when asked whether
there’s an inherent right to marry.
OCTOBER 2010: “I have been to this point unwilling to sign on to same-sex
marriage primarily because of my understandings of the traditional
definitions of marriage,” President Obama said during an interview with
liberal bloggers. “But I also think you’re right that attitudes evolve,
including mine. And I think that it is an issue that I wrestle with and
think about because I have a whole host of friends who are in gay
partnerships.”
DECEMBER 2010: “My feelings about this are constantly evolving. I struggle
with this. At this point, what I’ve said is, is that my baseline is a
strong civil union that provides them the protections and the legal rights
that married couples have,” Obama said in response to a question from ABC’
s Jake Tapper at a White House press conference.
“I recognize that from their perspective it is not enough, and I think is
something that we’re going to continue to debate and I personally am going
to continue to wrestle with going forward,” he said.
JUNE 2011: “The president has never favored same-sex marriage. He is
against it. The country is evolving on this, and he is evolving on it,”
Pfeiffer told progressive activists at the Net Roots Nation conference.
JUNE 2011: “I think it’s important for us to work through these issues
because each community is going to be different, each state is going to be
different,” Obama said when asked during a White House news conference
about New York becoming the latest state to legalize same-sex marriage.
“I think what you’re seeing is a profound recognition on the part of the
American people that gays and lesbians and transgender persons are our
brothers, our sisters, our children, our cousins, our friends, our co-
workers, and that they’ve got to be treated like every other American,” he
said. “And I think that principle will win out. It’s not going to be
perfectly smooth, and it turns out that the president — I’ve discovered
since I’ve been in this office — can’t dictate precisely how this process
moves.”
OCTOBER 2011: “I’m still working on it,” Obama said when asked by ABC’s
George Stephanopoulos whether he would move from supporting civil unions for
same-sex couples to supporting gay marriage.
“I probably won’t make news right now, George. But I think that there’s
no doubt that as I see friends, families children of gay couples who are
thriving, you know, that has an impact on how I think about these issues.” |
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