I saw how the gay community grew strong and became a force in the city and before I knew a gay people personally I was homophobic. The more I got to know and work with gay people I finally understood they are no different than me. I evolved on my opinion and I suspect the president also evolved on his opinion instead of being closed minded like today's conservatives.

since it was california and probably the only competitive pres election was the OBama Hillary 2008 Primary during the time i was able to vote i don't know if it was always like this. or if gays got more involved after the anti gay crap pushed by the right during the BUsh administration.

same as most Democrats (and probably some republicans) who claim to oppose same sex marriage.

Politicians play politics. If they didn't, they wouldn't be politicians.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

I remember that once I used a transphobic term on this board, and when challenged, I realized what I had done and felt ashamed.

I'm not perfect....I hope that I grow in love and wisdom. I'm grateful to have the chance to do so.

Here's me..learning not to be an asshole about food stamps....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=503937&mesg_id=505825

I don't think it matters much. Had anyone else possible been President, we wouldn't have the progress we have today though. Except maybe Hillary.

Not make a commitment...at least thats how I remember it.

but he's been too chickenshit to support it until late in the game. Had to be coaxed out of his faux 'position' by Joe Biden's leadership on the issue. Hillary was late to the game, as well, even though I think she's been fine with equal marriage for a helluva lot longer than she's let on.

We don't have a lot of courageous people on our side on this issue, but since we seem to have reached a tipping point, we've got a lot more folks coming along.

President Obama announced Wednesday that he now supports same sex couples’ right to get married. The president, who had been against gay marriage in 2008 but later said his views were “evolving,” explained that he had decided to support gay marriage some time ago, but had been deciding the most appropriate time to publicly announce it. However, Vice President Joe Biden’s comments earlier last weekend that he was “comfortable” with gay marriage put pressure on Obama to clarify his own stance...

Obama’s announcement came the day after North Carolina voters passed an amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman...

http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/will-obamas-support-of-gay-marriage-help-him-politically


Running for the Illinois state senate in 1998, Barack Obama said he was "undecided" on whether to legalize same-sex marriage. Fast forward six years.

"What I believe is that marriage is between a man and a woman." That was U.S. Senate candidate Obama in 2004. "What I believe, in my faith, is that a man and a woman, when they get married, are performing something before God, and it's not simply the two persons who are meeting."

"My feelings about this are constantly evolving. I struggle with this," he said in 2010, two years into his presidency. He told Jake Tapper, now anchor of CNN's "The Lead," that "at this point, what I've said is, that my baseline is a strong civil union that provides them the protections and the legal rights that married couples have."

Government sources told CNN that Obama made the final decision to file the Supreme Court briefs in the current cases, and the legal language to use.

This was all set in motion in the heat of the president's re-election campaign last year..

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/25/politics/supreme-court-preview-obama/

What he apparently doesn't believe in is politicizing it and/or banning it. The religious issues with it, he doesn't mind and probably still agrees with IMHO, but he seems to take the progressive side on this and thinks the state has no business passing laws to enforce religious tenets. Thus his 'support' of it.