Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on
Monday publicly endorsed gay marriage.
Appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe,
Duncan was asked by Mark Halperin, “Do you believe that same sex
men and women should be able to get legally married in the United
States?”
After a brief pause, Duncan answered:
“Yes. I do.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of this
page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)
Duncan is the Obama administration's
second cabinet official to support marriage equality.
In an interview last year with gay
weekly Metro
Weekly, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan
said that passage of a gay marriage law in New York made him proud to
be a New Yorker.
Duncan's remarks come a day after Vice
President Joe Biden said he was “comfortable” with gay couples
marrying.
Evan Wolfson, founder and president of
Freedom to Marry, responded in a statement.
“Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's
announcement this morning adds him to the drumbeat of Obama
Administration members coming out in support of the freedom to marry
for same-sex couples. Like Vice President Biden, former Presidents
Clinton and Carter, former Vice Presidents Gore and Cheney, Laura
Bush, and the majority of Americans. Secretary Duncan knows that
loving and committed gay couples seek the freedom to marry for the
same mix of reasons as other couples: to make a vow to one another,
to share life with the person they love, and to protect their
families. Standing up for the freedom to marry is not just the right
thing to do, it's the right thing politically, and it's time for the
President to stand on the right side of history,” Wolfson said.