/Portals/2/logos/__TFMF_qlggxk55w12mnp55tm5pvwbz_70181f9c-ff60-40db-a5d8-a3e463f7a4b4_0___Selected.jpg en-us Copyright 2008 - All Rights Reserved. Sun, 19 May 2013 09:48:05 GMT 15 By Emily Fishman
This past week, President Barack Obama became the first United States President to personally endorse same-sex marriage. His statement came one day after Vice President Joe Biden informed the press that he supports the rights of gay couples to a marriage constituted of the same rights and privileges of opposite-sex couples. Biden’s words, “I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men marrying women are entitled to the same exact rights. All the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly I don’t see much of a distinction beyond that,” came shortly after President Obama was questioned on his stance on the issue, questions which he responded to similarly as before – that his opinion on same-sex marriage was continuing to “evolve.” However, the day after Vice President Biden’s full support of the issue, President Obama sat down for a press conference during which he too gave his personal support, if not the support of the government behind making same-sex marriage legal – “I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or Marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.” ]]> Thu, 17 May 2012 20:26:08 GMT