Obama-supports-same-sex-marriage
President Barack Obama made a public statement to ABC news endorsing same-sex marriage. That day, Wednesday, May 9th, 2012 will stand as a significant date in American history…for the first time in United States history, a sitting president has not only voiced a clear opinion on the topic of gay and lesbian marriage, but he also made a statement of support towards this issue.
This is a long time coming for Obama, who publically favored same-sex marriage as he ran for Illinois State Senate in 1996 and claimed that his feelings on the issue were “evolving” in 2010, shortly after he was sworn in as president. While Obama shared his opinion on this controversial issue in interviews in the past, he has evaded answering the question completely until now. Obama commented that he now “personally” believes gay and lesbian Americans should have the opportunity to marry whomever they want. This personal standpoint recognizes friends, advisors, and members of the military as having monogamous same-sex relationships, causing him to adhere to the idea of equality rather than religion or tradition. Nevertheless, he prefaces this by offering that individual states should determine the laws on the issue and that he will not yet go forward on a U.S. policy on gay marriage. Regardless of personal opinion or political platform, this topic on same-sex marriage will be a major debate in the Presidential election in the next few months to come.
As an Illinois Civil Union Attorney, I am proud to live within a state that has already begun the process of recognizing civil unions. As recent as June 1st, 2011, our very own state of Illinois allowed the Civil Union Act to come into effect. In addition to this important event, I believe that Wednesday, May 9th will be remembered as a date when the President of the United States of America made a public statement supporting the marriage rights that so many of our citizens have longed for. As the year continues on and political debates become more frequent, I am looking forward to hearing our nation address this heated issue of marriage and equality.
Michael C. Craven is an experienced family law attorney in Chicago. He is a partner in the law firm of Beermann Pritikin Mirabelli Swerdlove LLP. (Formerly of Beermann, now a Partner at Harrison LLP), one of Illinois’ largest and most respected family law practices. Mr.Craven concentrates in family law, including civil unions, domestic partnerships, estate planning and child custody. He also holds a Master of Tax Law Degree (LLM) and CPA. For more information about his services, contact Michael at mcraven@harrisonheld.com or at Civil Unions Illinois.
