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Anderson Cooper: Will Obama Endorse Gay Marriage In New York Thursday?

By On Top Magazine Staff
Published: June 23, 2011

In a segment called Keeping them Honest: Politics of Gay Marriage, Anderson Cooper, host of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, asked the question: Will President Barack Obama back gay marriage during a New York City gay fundraiser on Thursday?

The question has become more pointed since Tuesday's airing since the New York Senate, the final hurdle to legalizing gay marriage in the Empire State, appears likely to take up a vote on Governor Andrew Cuomo's proposed legislation, possibly as early as Thursday.

“New questions are being raised about what the president actually believes about gay marriage and whether his public opposition to it is real or just political posturing,” Cooper said in the segment.

Cooper noted that Obama favored marriage equality as an Illinois senator in a 1996 survey, but in 2008 he told a group of Christian conservatives that he believed marriage is a “sacred union” “between a man and a woman,” and added that he favors civil unions for gay and lesbian couples, a position he holds today. Obama has since said he's “evolving” on the issue of marriage equality. (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)

The president's motorcade is expected to create havoc as it winds its way to the Democratic National Committee's sold-out $1,250-a-ticket Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Gala dinner at the Midtown Sheraton, where actor Neil Patrick Harris will serve as host.

A second opportunity for the president to “evolve” on gay marriage will come at a Gay Pride reception at the White House next week.