WASHINGTON, D.C., May 7, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Barack Obama’s secretary of education has said “I do” to same-sex “marriage.”
Arne Duncan was asked by Mark Halperin on this morning’s “Morning Joe” program if he believed same-sex couples have the right to have their relationships legally defined as “marriage.” Duncan told MSNBC’s viewers, “Yes, I do.”
The remarks come one day after Vice President Joe Biden told NBC’s “Meet the Press” host David Gregory, “I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly, I don’t see much of a distinction – beyond that.”
A spokesman for Biden rushed out a clarification. “The vice president was saying what the president has said previously – that committed and loving same-sex couples deserve the same rights and protections enjoyed by all Americans, and that we oppose any effort to rollback those rights,” it read. “That’s why we stopped defending the constitutionality of section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act in legal challenges and support legislation to repeal it. Beyond that, the Vice President was expressing that he too is evolving on the issue, after meeting so many committed couples and families in this country.”
Duncan is not the first Obama administration official to publicly support redefining marriage.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan told the homosexual newspaper Metro Weekly he “absolutely” supported same-sex marriage last November. “‘I was enormously proud to be a New Yorker on the day that it passed,” he said, noting he had worked for both New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, both of whom lobbied heavily for the bill.
“We’ve got more work to do in the Obama administration in a second term,” Donovan said.
Although President Obama has not formally endorsed same-sex “marriage” by name, he strongly supports civil unions that would grant the same rights as a marriage contract, and he has stated that his views on same-sex “marriage” continue to “evolve” since October 2010.
Last December, President Obama sent congratulations to a same-sex “married” couple in New York.
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Halperin said he was asking all cabinet officials their views on this issue. Although Obama’s re-election website boasts of 40 specific ways the president has advanced the homosexual agenda, it remains under fire for not yet specifically supporting the full LGBT agenda on marriage. A series of lower-level cabinet endorsements may relieve pressure and energize its activist base.
The administration has a close relationship with the liberal television network. Obama administration officials have been known to contact MSNBC hosts while on the air.
A transcript follows the video:
Transcript:
Mark Halperin : Just a little ice-breaking, Mr. Secretary. We’re gonna go through the whole cabinet. Do you believe that same-sex men and women should be able to get legally married in the United States?
Arne Duncan: Yes I do.
Halperin :Have you ever said that publicly before?
Duncan:I don’t think I’ve ever been asked publicly.