Who was the first president to support gay marriage

The Journey to Marriage Equality in the United States

The road to nationwide marriage equality was a extended one, spanning decades of United States history and culminating in victory in June 2015. Throughout the long combat for marriage equality, HRC was at the forefront.

Volunteer with HRC

From gathering supporters in small towns across the region to rallying in front of the Supreme Court of the United States, we gave our all to secure every person, regardless of whom they love, is known equally under the law.

A Growing Ring for Equality

Efforts to legalize same-sex marriage began to pop up across the country in the 1990s, and with it challenges on the state and national levels. Civil unions for lgbtq+ couples existed in many states but created a separate but equal accepted. At the federal level, couples were denied access to more than 1,100 federal rights and responsibilities associated with the institution, as well as those denied by their given state. The Defense of Marriage Act was signed into law in 1996 and defined marriage by the federal government as between a guy and woman, thereby allowing states to deny m

A Brief Chronology of Presidential LGBTQIA+ Civil Rights Achievements

To honor Presidents' Day, we at Seattle Lgbtq+ fest are honoring the words and efforts of executive leaders who have famous us. It is hard to travel back more than a few years and see anything but empty pursuits of ‘tolerance’ or outright silence when considering LGBTQIA+ Americans, but today we pay homage to the few presidents who have championed improved conditions for our LGBTQIA+ siblings.

Lyndon B. Johnson (sort of):

Decades after route, Barack Obama would laud the 1964 Civil Rights Operate as instrumental in opening the door for other many other anti-discrimination laws and judicial decisions, most recently Bostock v Clayton Co, GA, which codified employment anti-discrimination for gay and trans person Americans.

However, the administration itself was not warm to this idea. In a 1965 letter to LGBTQIA+ forebear Frank Kameny, VP Humphrey insisted that the Civil Rights Proceed was ‘not relevant to the problems of homosexuals’.

Hence, LBJ can best be described as an accidental LGBTQIA+ advocate. Thanks (sort of)!

Bill Clinton (not really, though)

Bill Clinton was a politically nuanced leader, allowing h

WASHINGTON – (AP) President Barack Obama reversed his position on homosexual marriage on Wednesday, becoming the first president to endorse the politically explosive idea and injecting a polarizing issue into the 2012 race for the Colorless House.

Obama’s announcement – coming after initially supporting gay marriage in 1996, only to reverse himself by 2004 and more recently refusing to take a unmistakable stand – cheered gay rights groups who have long urged him to support gay marriage. It also opened up a distinct area of disagreement with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who opposes gay marriage.

Polling suggests the nation is evenly divided on the issue.

“I have hesitated on gay marriage in part because I thought that civil unions would be sufficient,” Obama said in an interview with ABC at the White Home. He added that, “I was sensitive to the fact that for a lot of people the word ‘marriage’ was something that invokes very powerful traditions, religious beliefs and so forth.”

Now, he said, “it is key for me personally to depart ahead and affirm that gay couples should be able to get married.”

The president’s decision to address the issue came

High-Profile Politicians Who Changed Their Positions on Gay Marriage

March 15, 2013 -- intro: Public opinion on homosexual marriage has shifted rapidly in recent years. Here is a look at some of the most high-profile politicians who possess changed their opinions on the issue in the past decade.

quicklist: 1title: Hillary Clintontext:Former first lady, senator and Secretary of Declare Hillary Clinton has been in the political arena for many years, but has avoided an official stance on same-sex marriage until now.

In an interview with CBS News in 2003, Clinton spoke of her opposition to lgbtq+ marriage but said she was in favor of civil unions. She went on to say that she was opposed to the Federal Marriage Amendment that would have defined marriage as an execute between a man and a woman.

As a Recent York senator, Clinton repeated her support for civil unions in 2006 when the state did not extend the constitutional right of marriage to lgbtq+ couples.

In a 2007 ABC News interview, Clinton spoke about the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy her husband, former President Bill Clinton implemented. Hillary Clinton admitted that the policy was no longer ap