Barack Obama backs same-sex marriage | WPN World People News

US President Barack Obama has backed same-sex marriage in a move hailed by Democrats, gay rights activists and others as the one that will be a point of reference for civil rights in America.

"It is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married," Obama said in an interview to ABC's Robin Roberts.

This is for the first time in the history of the US that any president has publicly expressed support for gay marriage.

Obama said his thinking over the issue had evolved over the years by watching members of his staff committed in gay relationships and also by thinking about "soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained".

He said his family -- wife Michelle and daughters Malla and Sasha -- were also the influential factors in his change of heart.

"You know, Malia and Sasha, they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples," Obama said.

"There have been times where Michelle and I have been sitting around the dinner table and we're talking about their friends and their parents, and Malia and Sasha, it wouldn't dawn on them that somehow their friends' parents would be treated differently."

"It doesn't make sense to them and frankly, that's the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective."

Media reports said the decision to back same-sex marriage was taken within 48 hours of frenzied will-he-or-won't-he speculation after Vice President Joe Biden embraced the idea and announced the same in a Sunday talk show interview.

The stand and the announcement were lauded by many.

"This is a major turning point in the history of American civil rights," said New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent whose city is in one of six states that allow same-sex marriage.

Neera Tanden from the Center for American Progress said it was "another large step toward realizing this country's promise of equality".

Source: United States News.Net