http://www.christianpost.com/news/obama-same-sex-couples-should-be-able-to-get-married-74672/
Obama: 'Same-Sex
Couples Should Be Able to Get Married'
Obama Cites Golden Rule, Faith in
Supporting Gay Marriage
By Napp Nazworth
, Christian Post Reporter
May 9, 2012|3:19 pm
President Barack Obama
announced Wednesday that his "evolution" on
same-sex marriage
is complete. He favors allowing gay couples to marry.
Obama mentioned, in particular, gay members of his staff and
the military as being influential in his decision.
"As I talked to friends, 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, sailors who are fighting on
my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that 'don't ask, don't tell' is
gone, because they're 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 that same-sex couples should be able to get
married," Obama said at a hastily scheduled interview with ABC News.
Obama had come under increasing pressure to take a more
definitive stance on the issue after Vice President Joe Biden seemed to
announce that he favored gay marriage in a Sunday interview before White House
staffers backtracked on Biden's remarks. Biden's interview was followed Monday
morning by Education
Secretary Arne Duncan announcing that he supported same-sex marriage.
During the 2008 campaign, Obama said he supported civil
unions for gay couples but believed marriage is only for a man and a woman. In
2010, he admitted that he struggled with the issue and that his views were
"constantly evolving." In Wednesday's interview, he said he came to
his new position over the course of several years.
Citing his faith, he told ABC, "In the end, the values
that I care most deeply about, and she (Michelle Obama) cares most deeply about
is how we treat other people. We're both practicing Christians and obviously
this position may be considered to put us at odds with the views of others but
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 – treat
others the way you'd want to be treated.
"I figure the more consistent I can be in being true to
those precepts, the better I'll be as a dad and as a husband and hopefully the
better I'll be as a president."
White House press briefings became heated this week after
the press corps pushed White House spokesperson Jay Carney to give a more thorough
explanation of where Obama stood on the issue. Many took the cynical view that
Obama was already in favor of gay marriage, but was waiting until after the
next election to announce it.
Obama was also under pressure from liberal and gay donors.
Some were withholding from giving money to a super PAC supporting Obama unless
he issued an executive order banning discrimination based upon sexual
orientation by federal contractors. There is no word yet on whether he has
changed his position on that issue.
Obama's announcement comes the day after North Carolina
voters passed an amendment to their state constitution defining marriage as
between one man and one woman.
Obama had already decided that his administration would not
defend a section of the Defense of Marriage Act that defines marriage as
between one man and one woman for the purposes of federal law -- a position
that had seemed to be in contradiction to his previous opposition to same-sex
marriage.
The full interview will air
Wednesday night on ABC's "World News Tonight" and Thursday morning on
ABC's "Good Morning America."
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