First president to support gay marriage before running

The president describes his change of position on gay marriage as several steps behind his and year-old daughters and the college students he frequently encounters — gay marriage young. Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at agestood out for his first president support for pro-gay legislation and his embrace of LGBTQ advocates, historians say. Obama was in favor of same-sex marriage before he was against it — and before he was for it again.

Inas he ran for Illinois state Senate, Chicago’s Outlines gay newspaper asked candidates. January Obama becomes the first U.S. president to mention gays and lesbians in an inaugural address and champions same-sex marriage. WASHINGTON – (AP) President Barack Obama reversed his position on gay marriage on Wednesday, becoming the first president to endorse the politically explosive idea and injecting a polarizing issue into the race for the White House.

NBC News Logo. In Augustas Obama battled Republican Alan Keyes in the Senate race, his rival accused him of equivocating on the issue. This has been my long-standing position, and it is not before running reviewed or considered," Clinton said. Marriage equality is now supported by half of Americans in polls. When Jimmy Carter was president from togays and lesbians were unable to obtain government security clearance, same-sex intimacy was illegal in at least two dozen states, and gay marriage was no more than a radical pipe dream.

I've been married for 29 years. Rob Portman text: Rob Portman, R-Ohio, was once on the short-list of Mitt Romney's running mates and opposed gay marriage legislation. And he knows how the love and sacrifice of marriage can heal, integrate, and rebuild a soul. It's so disappointing to me. Jul 6, PM. Bush, who opposed gay marriage and set the administration's policy on the issue.

Jul 13, PM. I think civil unions are the way to go. He was a black kid brought up by white grandparents and a white single mother in Hawaii and Indonesia, where his color really made no difference. And, you know, my interest is to avoid playing on their court on this issue," he said. The unity and intensity of the gay power brokers—absent in the defensive crouch of the Clinton years—proved that FDR's maxim still applied: "I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it.

If money was one factor making the move before running, the youth vote—essential to his demographic support and overwhelmingly pro—marriage equality—clinched the logic of it. And as he was often to do in the next few years, he also accused opponents of same-sex marriage of trying to exploit the issue for their political advantage.

But Cheney did not actively lobby for same-sex marriage as vice president. Obama voted against moving ahead with the proposed amendment. And last week, especially after The Washington Post broke the news of Romney's adolescent assault on a gay student, the choice could not have been starker.

Defense of marriage act overturned

White House sources say that if Obama had been a state senator in New York last year when the Albany legislature legalized gay marriage, he'd have voted in favor. I really do.

Gays are born mostly into heterosexual families and discover as they grow up that, for some reason, they will never be able to have a marriage like their parents' or their siblings'. President Obama also announced his support for gay marriage a few days later, even though he said Biden got "a little over his skis" on the issue. But no one asked. It was an inevitable culmination of three years of work.