Former Secretary of Homeland Security
Janet Napolitano has endorsed gay marriage.
Napolitano, the 21st
governor of Arizona from 2003 to 2009, made her first public
statements in support of allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry
during an appearance Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press.
“When you were governor, you opposed
same-sex marriage. Have you changed your views on that?” host
David Gregory asked.
“Yes. I think like many in political
and elective life in the early part of this century, the evolution
hadn't occurred, and my statements were very much in that way,”
Napolitano answered. “Which is to say that, this was something
that society, in a way the arc of history, as it were, needed to get
there. And the arc of history has clearly arrived.” (The video is
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Napolitano will lead a 10-person
delegation to the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia next month. The
inclusion of three openly gay athletes in the delegation is widely
seen as a symbolic protest against an anti-gay law which took effect
in Russia over the summer.