Obama elusive on about-face on same-sex marriage (San Francisco Chronicle 2/17/10)

Obama elusive on about-face on same-sex marriage

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
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President Obama says he opposes same-sex marriage for religious reasons. Fourteen years ago, however, while a churchgoing Christian and a state legislative candidate, he endorsed the right of gays and lesbians to marry.

Sponsors of Proposition 8, California's ban on same-sex marriage, cited Obama's current position in their 2008 campaign and have quoted him in their defense of the measure during a federal court trial in San Francisco. Gay rights groups, noting that Obama actually opposed Prop. 8, have urged him to take a stance on the lawsuit, without success.

What has received much less attention is Obama's unexplained reversal of the position he once held backing same-sex marriage - the position still held by the church he attended for most of his adult life.

Obama was running for the Illinois state Senate in Chicago in February 1996 when he answered a questionnaire from a gay-oriented newspaper, Outlines, on gay rights issues. One of his answers was, "I favor legalizing same-sex marriage, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages."
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