Obama announces his support for same-sex marriage

President Obama today announced that he now supports

same-sex marriage, reversing his longstanding opposition amid growing pressure

from the Democratic base and even his own vice president.

In an interview with ABC News? Robin Roberts, the president

described his thought process as an ?evolution? that led him to this place,

based on conversations with his own staff members, openly gay and lesbian

service members, and conversations with his wife and own daughters.

"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,? Obama told Roberts, in an interview to appear on ABC?s ?Good Morning

America? Thursday. Excerpts of the interview will air tonight on ABC?s ?World

News with Diane Sawyer.?

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The president stressed that this is a personal position, and

that he still supports the concept of states deciding the issue on their own.

But he said he?s confident that more Americans will grow comfortable with gays

and lesbians getting married, citing his own daughters? comfort with the

concept.

?It?s interesting, some of this is also

generational,? the president continued. ?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. They are much more comfortable with it. 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.?

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Roberts asked the president if First Lady Michelle Obama was

involved in this decision. Obama said she was, and he talked specifically about

his own faith in responding.

?This is something that, you know, we?ve talked about over

the years and she, you know, she feels the same way, she feels the same way

that I do. And that is that, in the end the values that I care most deeply

about and she cares most deeply about is how we treat other people and, you

know, I, you know, we are both practicing Christians and obviously this

position may be considered to put us at odds with the views of others but, you

know, when we think about our faith, the thing at root that we think about is,

not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf, but it?s also the Golden

Rule, you know, treat others the way you would want to be treated. And I think

that?s what we try to impart to our kids and that?s what motivates me as

president and I figure the most consistent I can be in being true to those

precepts, the better I?ll be as a as a dad and a husband and hopefully the

better I?ll be as president.?

Previously, Obama has moved in the direction of supporting

same-sex marriage but has consistently stopped short of outright backing it.

Instead, he?s voiced support for civil unions for gay and

lesbian couples that provide the rights and benefits enjoyed by married

couples, though not defined as ?marriage.? At the same time, the president has

opposed efforts to ban gay marriage at the state level, saying that he did not

favor attempts to strip rights away from gay and lesbian couples.

The president?s position became a flashpoint this week, when

Vice President Joe Biden pronounced himself ?absolutely comfortable? with

allowing same-sex couples to wed.

Obama aides insisted there was no daylight between the

positions held by the president and his vice president when it comes to legal

rights, but as other prominent Democrats also weighed in in favor of gay

marriage, the disconnect became difficult for the White House to explain away.

The announcement completes a turnabout for the president,

who has opposed gay marriage throughout his career in national politics. In

1996, as a state Senate candidate, he indicated support for gay marriage in a

questionnaire, but Obama aides later disavowed it and said it did not reflect

the candidate?s position.

In 2004, as a candidate for the US Senate, he cited his own

religion in framing his views: ?I'm a Christian. I do believe that tradition

and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a

man and a woman.?

He maintained that position through his 2008 presidential

campaign, and through his term as president, until today.

As president in 2010, Obama told ABC?s Jake Tapper that his

feelings about gay marriage were ?constantly evolving. I struggle with this.? A

year later, the president told ABC?s George Stephanopoulos, ?I?m still working

on it.?

?I probably won't make news right now, George,? Obama

said in October 2011. ?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.?

Obama?s decision has political connotations for the fall.

The issue divides elements of the Democratic base, with liberals and gay-rights

groups eager to see the president go farther, but with gay marriage far less

popular among African-American voters.

Just yesterday, in North

Carolina, voters overwhelmingly approved a

constitutional ban on gay marriage. President Obama carried North

Carolina in 2008, and its status as a 2012 battleground was

guaranteed by Democrats? decision to hold their convention in Charlotte this summer.

Obama?s likely Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, opposes gay

marriage, and fought his state?s highest court when Massachusetts became the

first state to legalize gay marriage in 2004, when Romney was governor. Romney

said on the campaign trail Monday that he continues to oppose gay marriage.

?My view is that

marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman,? Romney said. ?That?s the

position I?ve had for some time, and I don?t intend to make any adjustments at

this point. ? Or ever, by the way.?

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