Is President Barack Obama preparing to
come out in favor of gay marriage?
The topic of the president's position
on the institution has bubbled up to the surface once again.
At Netroots Nation, the progressive
conference taking place this weekend in Minneapolis, White
House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer created a kerfuffle when
he claimed Obama did not fill out a 1996 questionnaire in which
then-Senator Obama said he favored gay marriage. Pfeiffer noted
that the president supports civil unions for gay and lesbian couples
and is “evolving” on marriage.
But while not supporting marriage for
gay and lesbian couples, Obama has come out against constitutional
amendments defining marriage as a heterosexual union and has
instructed the Justice Department to no longer defend the Defense of
Marriage Act (DOMA), the 1996 law that forbids federal agencies from
recognizing the marriages of gay couples.
And there is ample evidence that the
administration in working against DOMA in more subtle ways. For
example, it
recently gave states guidance not to discriminate against the
same-sex spouses of Medicaid recipients.
Now
The
New York Times is quoting an
unnamed Democratic strategist as saying that the White House is
“looking at the tactics” of how the president could come out in
favor of gay marriage.
All
eyes, of course, will be on Governor Andrew Cuomo next week as he
works to break a logjam in the Senate blocking his plan to make New
York the sixth state to legalize gay marriage. And
Cuomo has said he expects he'll be successful in legalizing gay
marriage in the Empire State.
Coincidentally, the
president has two Gay Pride commitments on his schedule: a black tie
fundraiser in Manhattan this week and a reception at the White House
the following week. Coincidence or good timing?