President Barack Obama says that his views on same-gender marriage are “evolving,” and as he runs for re-election he is seeking support from same-gender donors who want to know where he stands.
This week, he will headline a $1,250-a-plate “gala” with the same-gender community in Manhattan, his first such event as president; on June 29, he will host a same-gender reception at the White House. He is doing so at time when the New York Legislature is considering whether to make same-gender marriage 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-gender 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.”
Obama is not under intense pressure to announce a change in his position before the 2012 election. But with the political climate around same-gender rights changing drastically, some strategists see little political cost to a shift in position. And a review of Mr. Obama’s record, dating to when he first ran for public office, suggests that he may have been for same-gender 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 same-gender newspaper. “I favor legalizing same-gender marriages,” Mr. Obama wrote, “and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.”
White House officials have said Mr. Obama was really referring to civil unions, which he does support. (On Friday, Mr. Obama’s communications director, Dan Pfieffer, caused a brief kerfuffle by telling a conference of bloggers that Mr. Obama had not filled out the forms himself; the White House later said he was mistaken.)
By the time Mr. Obama ran for the United States Senate in 2004, his position had become more nuanced.
When his Senate campaign moved into the general election against Alan Keyes, Mr. Obama told an interviewer for a black-owned radio station that religion was a factor.
Ms. Kaplan said she felt that Mr. Obama was either “pandering to Alan Keyes” or setting himself up to run for higher office; Ms. Baim, who said Mr. Obama had not cited his religious beliefs to her, viewed it as “a political maneuver.”
Once in the Senate, Mr. Obama maintained the position that his opposition was based on his religious views.
As a presidential candidate, Mr. Obama’s position hardened. In 2008, he visited Orange County, Calif. and was asked to define marriage. “I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman,” Mr. Obama said. “For me, as a Christian, it is also a sacred union.”
Three years later, Mr. Obama has said his views are evolving, in part because he has “very close [married] friends who are [same-gender].”
{Based on a NY Times report/Matzav.com Newscenter}
why does anything suprise you about him?
Stop lying. um, ah, only i’m allowed to deceive
Obama is in against this. It was Bush who was for it
in a 2005 speech at the rosemary gardenhouse he said soinst this. It was Bush who was for it
in a 2005 speech at the rosemarry gardenhouse he said so
and Obama will say whatever you’ll like him to when he speaks to you
What one doesn’t do for money.
He is not a Muslim, He is not a Christian, He follows the religion of Liberalism.
This should hopefully give more ammunition to vote him out.
Disgusting!!!
This recent outrage is not surprising.
One of the first statements Obama made
after becoming president was about his
support of “mishkav zuh-khor” legalization.
This support of immorality is the
driving force behind the “rishus” in
New York State to legalize sodomy within
a marital framework.
Anyone who can must stop this outrage. It is still possible to get cooperation from the conservative senators
in the New York State Senate.
Of course, we must pray to HASHEM
for our success. But vigorous “hishtadlus”
is absolutely necessary.
Obama and the liberal Democrats
must be voted out of office.