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Obama expected to speak on gay marriage

By JENNIFER EPSTEIN | 5/9/12 11:03 AM EDT

President Barack Obama is expected to speak about his views on gay marriage in an interview Wednesday afternoon, following days of increasing pressure to clarify his “evolving” position on the issue.

Obama is scheduled to sit down with ABC News’s Robin Roberts at the White House for a hastily scheduled interview just a day after voters in North Carolina approved a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. A source at ABC told POLITICO that Roberts will ask Obama about his views on gay marriage.

The full interview is set to air Thursday on “Good Morning America,” but some excerpts are expected to be released Wednesday.

“I think the waiting is finally over,” said Richard Socarides, who served as an LGBT adviser to President Bill Clinton. “I’m hopeful that the president is going to speak directly on this issue. When he does, I think it will be an important moment.” (emphasis added)

Obama’s chance to speak out on the issue comes days after two top members of the Obama administration publicly voiced their own support for gay marriage. Vice President Joe Biden said Sunday on “Meet the Press” that he is “absolutely comfortable” with men marrying men and women marrying women, while Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in an interview Monday on MSNBC that he supports gay marriage.

The administration has stressed that Biden and Duncan were voicing their personal opinions and not an official policy position, but their comments have nonetheless spurred reporters and gay rights activists to ask whether Obama’s personal views have also changed.

Obama said in late 2010 that his views on gay marriage were “evolving” and, since then, administration officials have pointed back to those comments, stressing that Obama is a supporter of gay rights who has overseen the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and whose Justice Department has stopped defending the Defense of Marriage Act.

Obama’s campaign issued a statement in March opposing the North Carolina gay marriage ban, and Tuesday night issued another, stating “President Obama has long believed that gay and lesbian couples deserve the same rights and legal protections as straight couples and is disappointed in the passage of this amendment.”

Given recent developments, “it’s time for [Obama] to complete the journey that so many Americans have taken,” said Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, in a Wednesday morning appearance on MSNBC. “I think the president has a lot to gain and little to lose” by speaking out and “being authentic about what he believes.”

Facing a barrage of questions during his daily briefing on Monday following the comments from Biden and Duncan, White House press secretary Jay Carney said that “the president is the right person to describe his own personal views” — something Obama will have a chance to do on Wednesday.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories...#ixzz1uO4krXul