President Barack Obama will soon
endorse gay marriage, Richard Socarides, a former adviser on gay
rights to President Bill Clinton, has predicted.
In an op-ed published Tuesday in the
New
Yorker, Socarides wrote that Obama's announcement was on the
“immediate horizon.”
“After a year in which we saw a
number of high-profile gay-rights victories, including the repeal of
'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' and the legislative enactment of same-sex
marriage in New York, it's hard to imagine that more big news is on
the immediate horizon. But it is.”
“[P]resident Barack Obama's
self-described 'evolution' on same-sex marriage appears likely to end
with a strategically timed (if low-key) pre-election announcement of
his support for marriage equality.”
“Until now, the President's position
has been based on political expediency. He has tried to have it both
ways. He articulated a kind of a 'separate but equal' policy – in
support of 'full rights' without endorsing marriage.”
“But now, the remarkable new reality
for Obama in this election is that supporting marriage equality is
smart politics,” Socarides added, referring to increasing support
for gay rights. “And it might just help get President Obama
reelected.”