In a recent interview, President Barack
Obama was asked about Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore's attempt to
block gay and lesbian couples from marrying in the state.
Earlier this month, Moore called on
probate judges to stop issuing marriage licenses to gay couples,
arguing that they have a “ministerial duty” to comply with a
voter-approved constitutional amendment and a state law that define
marriage as a heterosexual union despite the Supreme Court's June
ruling striking down such bans.
After a couple of days, most counties
resumed issuing marriage licenses to all qualified couples.
The president was interviewed Friday
from the East Room of the White House by top YouTube creators Destin
Sandlin, Ingrid Nilsen and Adande Thorne.
Nilsen, who
came out last year, asked Obama about Moore's order.
“[Marriage equality] is here to
stay,” Obama
said. “Understand that the Supreme Court has ruled that under
the constitution everybody in all 50 states has the right to marry
the person they love. That's now the law of the land. The fact that
an Alabama judge is resisting is just a temporary gesture by this
judge that will be rapidly overturned. It violates the supremacy
clause – when the constitution speaks, everybody has to abide by
it, and state judges can't overturn it.”
On LGBT rights, Obama remarked: “The
notion that you'd discriminate against someone because of sexual
orientation is so out of sync with how most young people think –
including young Republicans, young Democrats. … This is an issue
that is going to be moving in the right direction as long as we stay
vigilant and keep working on it.”