In an article in yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle called Obama elusive on about-face on same-sex marriage, Bob Egelko has a clue for those who attempt to muster support for their relentless campaign to prevent equality for LGBT citizens by claiming they hold the same position on marriage as the President of the United States:

President Obama says he opposes same-sex marriage for religious reasons. Fourteen years ago, however, while a churchgoing Christian and a state legislative candidate, he endorsed the right of gays and lesbians to marry.

Sponsors of Proposition 8, California’s ban on same-sex marriage, cited Obama’s current position in their 2008 campaign and have quoted him in their defense of the measure during a federal court trial in San Francisco. Gay rights groups, noting that Obama actually opposed Prop. 8, have urged him to take a stance on the lawsuit, without success.

What has received much less attention is Obama’s unexplained reversal of the position he once held backing same-sex marriage – the position still held by the church he attended for most of his adult life.

Obama was running for the Illinois state Senate in Chicago in February 1996 when he answered a questionnaire from a gay-oriented newspaper, Outlines, on gay rights issues. One of his answers was, “I favor legalizing same-sex marriage, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.“

(emphasis: mine)

The opponents of marriage equality are either deviously selective in what they choose to report about the President’s position or just plain ignorant. In 2008, candidate Obama took a position Geoff Kors, the Executive Director of Equality California, labeled “pure politics.”

“When he was running for office in Chicago and wanted strong support from the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community, he made it clear he supported full equality,” Kors said. “Since he has continued to seek higher office, he has changed his position for the worse.

The President’s position seems to be evolving once again. In a speech last October to the Human Rights Campaign, Obama said:

You will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognize relationships between two men or two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman. You will see a nation that’s valuing and cherishing these families as we build a more perfect union — a union in which gay Americans are an important part. I am committed to these goals. And my administration will continue fighting to achieve them.

If right-wing, anti-gay zealots want to continue to claim they share the same position on marriage equality as the President, they’ll have some evolving to do themselves. And, that’s a good thing.

Responding to an article by veteran activist David Mixner, a number of equality activists called Egelko’s Chronicle piece “old news.” It might be just that for those of us in the trenches, but it’s refreshing and positive to see the mainstream media reporting the whole truth, context and history behind the President’s on again, off again support for equal rights, vis-à-vis marriage, for LGBT couples.