White House Press Secretary Jay Carney today told reporters that President Obama believes same-sex marriage should be a state, not a federal issue, in what seems to be a backward shift. The comments come almost exactly 24 hours after the President, in his historic and groundbreaking inaugural address, told the nation:
“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.”
The President also compared the battle for LGBT equality to the African-American civil rights movement, noting in his inaugural address yesterday:
“We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.”
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Carney says Obama believes gay marriage should be a state issue.
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) January 22, 2013