President Obama’s views on marriage equality are ‘evolving’

As he runs for re-election, President Obama is seeking support from gay donors who want to know where he stands on marriage equality. This week, he will headline a $1,250-a-plate “Gala with the Gay Community” in Manhattan. This is also a time when New York is considering making marriage equality legal – a vote that the president will no doubt be asked about while in New York. The White House would not comment on whether Mr. Obama was ready to endorse same-sex marriage. But one Democratic strategist close to the White House, speaking only on the condition of anonymity, said some senior advisers “are looking at the tactics of how this might be done if the president chose to do it.”

The political climate around gay rights has recently changed drastically. Recent polls show that Americans, by a slim majority, now support same-sex marriage. And a review of Mr. Obama’s record, dating to when he first ran for public office, suggests that he may have supported same-sex marriage before he was against it.

In 1996, as a candidate for the State Senate in Illinois, Mr. Obama responded to a questionnaire from a gay newspaper. “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages,” Mr. Obama wrote, “and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.”

[via NYTimes.com]