Obama and Miss California aligned on same-sex marriage?
If President Obama's position on gay marriage is shifting, someone better tell White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
During the afternoon press briefing, ABC's Jake Tapper remarked that President Obama "opposed same-sex marriage but supports giving same-sex couples the same rights as married couples."
"With benefits," Gibbs said without objecting to Tapper's statement.
Same
Many say Obama's position on same-sex marriage is the same as the one Miss California, Carrie Prejean, took a lot of heat for.
"I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there but that’s how I was raised and that’s how I think it should be between a man and a woman," she said at the Miss USA pageant last month.
What's the difference between her statement and the president's? Nothing according to Prejean and impressario Donald Trump.
"It's the same answer that the president of the United States gave," Trump said at a press conference on Tuesday to announce Prejean would keep her title. "She gave an honorable answer. She gave an answer from her heart."
Prejean concurred. "The president of the United States, the secretary of state, and many Americans agree with me in this belief," she said.
Obama
If you look at past statements made by Obama, the positions do look similar. You can go back to this 2007 Chicago Tribune article:
"I'm a Christian. And so, although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do believe that tradition, and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman," he said.
2008 campaign
Or you can look at his comments made during the 2008 presidential campaign when asked by Saddleback church Pastor Rick Warren to define marriage.
"I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman," the future President said. "For me as a Christian, it is a sacred union. You know, God is in the mix."
"I am not someone who supports same-sex marriage but I do believe in civil unions," he later added.
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