President Barack Obama reiterated his
support for gay marriage while speaking at Berlin's iconic
Brandenburg Gate on Wednesday during the G8 Summit.
Obama spoke to an estimated crowd of
6,000 invited guests about freedom, both in Europe and the Middle
East, and the need for a reduction in nuclear stockpiles.
The president also drew applause when
he reiterated his support for gay rights.
“When we respect the faiths practiced
in our churches and synagogues, our mosques and our temples, we're
more secure. When we welcome the immigrant with his talents or her
dreams, we are renewed. When we stand up for our gay and lesbian
brothers and sisters and treat their love and their rights equally
under the law, we defend our own liberty as well. We are more free
when all people can pursue their own happiness. And as long as walls
exist in our hearts to separate us from those who don't look like us,
or think like us, or worship as we do, then we're going to have to
work harder, together, to bring those walls of division down,”
Obama told the crowd.