Pres.Obama's View On Same Sex Marriage are 'Evolving'
BY SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
THE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON - Driving across the flatlands of Illinois with Barack Obama during the Senate race of 2004, Kevin Thompson sometimes found himself tutoring the candidate on gay rights.
Thompson, then a traveling aide, recalls long conversations about topics such as the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion that sparked the gay-rights movement, gay adoption and same-sex marriage, which Obama has, in the past, opposed.
Thompson, an Obama supporter, is skeptical about that last topic.
"To this day," he said, "I don't think Barack Obama has any issue with two people of the same gender getting married."
Now, Obama says his views on same-sex marriage are "evolving" and, as he runs for re-election, he is seeking support from gay donors who want to know his stance.
The White House would not comment on whether Obama is ready to endorse same-sex marriage. But one Democratic strategist close to the White House, speaking on 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."
Many gay leaders say that because the president has a strong record on issues they care about - prodding Congress to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which barred openly gay men and women from serving in the military, and withdrawing legal support for the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman - he is not under pressure to announce a change in his position before the 2012 election.
But with the political climate surrounding gay rights changing, some strategists see little political cost to a shift in stance. A handful of recent polls show that Americans, by a slim majority, now support same-sex marriage.
Comments