Another First Between Obama and the Gay Community: Front of Out Magazine
President Barack Obama is the first sitting president to cover an LGBT publication, a historic moment for both OUT magazine and the nation. The President was named "Ally of the Year" in the magazine's annual OUT100 issue due to his positive stance on marriage equality and his support for the LGBT community.
Not only is the President on the cover of the popular gay and lesbian magazine, the issue also features a candid interview with him about the people who influenced his positive relationship with the community, including his daughters. Obama states that Sasha and Malia, now 17 and 14, have shown him that there has been a big shift in how people address homosexuality across generations.
"To Malia and Sasha and their friends, discrimination in any form against anyone doesn't make sense," the President tells OUT. "It doesn't dawn on them that friends who are gay or friends' parents who are same-sex couple should be treated any differently. That's powerful."
President Obama also talks about how his mother inspired his support for LGBT rights. He states that Dunham, who passed away in 1995, taught him that "every person was of equal worth," something that prompted him to focus on the rights of the gay and lesbian community during his administration.
Obama hasn't always been on board with same-sex marriage. According to CNN, the President has flip-flopped about it since he was a state Senate candidate in 1996. During his 2008 presidential campaign and up until 2012, he voiced his opposition to marriage equality, despite his support for it back in 1996.
It wasn't until 2012 that Obama fully supported the right of same-sex couples to get married in the United States. In an interview with ABC's Robin Roberts, he stated that he initially "hesitated on gay marriage" because he thought civil unions would be good enough, but was "proud and happy" when the Supreme Court's decision came down.
"I was honored to stand in the Rose Garden and reiterate for every American that we are strongest, that we are most free when all of us are treated equally," Obama told Roberts. "I was proud to say that love is love."
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