--- title: White House Avoids Talking About Obama's Gay-Marriage Views description: White House press secretary Josh Earnest avoided saying what President Obama thought about gay marriage when he ran for President canonical: https://time.com/3703591/obama-gay-marriage-josh-earnest/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-10T20:11:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T09:02:46.369Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House Avoids Talking About Obama's Gay-Marriage Views og:description: After a former adviser says Obama lied about them in 2008. og:url: https://time.com/3703591/obama-gay-marriage-josh-earnest/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdd6a9dd4ad001b96/69877e798e0601497745a35f/obama1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2100 og:image:height: 1181 og:image:alt: Obamas Attend National Prayer Breakfast og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Avoids Talking About Obama's Gay-Marriage Views twitter:description: After a former adviser says Obama lied about them in 2008. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdd6a9dd4ad001b96/69877e798e0601497745a35f/obama1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Avoids Talking About Obama's Gay-Marriage Views > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=58477674-ad39-4993-9484-18955a355e10&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Liberal Politicians on DOMA 1996 TO 2013 [Watch (HLS stream): Liberal Politicians on DOMA 1996 TO 2013](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mDzpvNFa.m3u8) (4:59)  _Published 2013-06-26. From Bill and Hillary Clinton to Barak Obama, liberal politicians opposed gay marriage until recently. Here's what they said then and now._ by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Feb 10, 2015 8:11 PM UTC Josh Earnest on Obama and Gay Marriage by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Feb 10, 2015 8:11 PM UTC What did the President believe and when did he believe it? That was the thrust of a tricky line of questioning on gay marriage for White House press secretary Josh Earnest on Tuesday. The questions came after a new book by former political strategist David Axelrod revealed that President Obama [misled the country about his true feelings](http://time.com/3702584/gay-marriage-axelrod-obama/) on gay marriage during his 2008 campaign. Earnest’s responses were a textbook case of the White House all but confirming a story without actually coming out and doing so. **MORE:** [Obama Adviser Says He Misled on Gay-Marriage Views](http://time.com/3702584/gay-marriage-axelrod-obama/) Instead of calling into question Axelrod’s accuracy, Earnest first praised him. “I have not had an opportunity to read all 525 pages of Mr. Axelrod’s book,” he said. “The firsthand account that he provides in the book is not one that I would disagree with or quibble with. He obviously is sharing his views as he remembers them. Sometimes his perspective is informed by his up-close, front-row seat to history. That’s one of the reasons I’m interested in reading the book.” Then he noted that voters had changed their views, too. (In 2008, [56% of Americans opposed it](http://www.gallup.com/poll/108115/americans-evenly-divided-morality-homosexuality.aspx), while [support was at 50%](http://www.gallup.com/poll/154529/half-americans-support-legal-gay-marriage.aspx) by the time Obama [came out publicly in favor of it](http://swampland.time.com/2012/05/09/obama-endorses-gay-marriage-i-think-same-sex-couples-should-be-able-to-get-married/) in 2012.) “When the President made his first public comments regarding support for gay couples to marry, that was viewed as a pretty controversial political stance,” he said. “I think that’s an indication that the President was not the first person to articulate this position but certainly was at the beginning of a broader change we saw all across the country.” And then he deflected the line of questioning by talking about Obama’s support for gay rights. “That reflects the kind of record this President has amassed while in office when it comes to fighting for justice for all Americans including GLBT Americans,” he said. “From ending ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ to writing an Executive Order banning federal contractors from discriminating against their employees regardless of who they love or for speaking out so boldly in support of gay marriage.” ## Transcript [00:00] >>I rise in strong in opposition to this ill- named " Defense [00:04] of Marriage Act" and I do so on the basis of conscience, [00:09] constitution, and constituency. [00:12] >>Whether senators are for or against same- sex marriage, [00:15] there are ample reasons to vote against this bill because it [00:17] represents an unconstitutional exercise of congressional [00:21] power. [00:22] >>I believe that marriage is not [00:26] just a bond, but a sacred bond between a man and a [00:30] woman. [00:32] >>Well, virtually every one of our colleague, on both sides [00:34] of the aisle for that matter, support traditional marriage [00:37] between a man and a woman. I've been married 37 years, [00:40] and I think the Senator from Nevada may have been [00:41] married longer. I mean, I respect this institution, committed [00:44] my life to it with my wife. And I think that we all understand [00:48] that. [00:49] >>Mr. President, I believe marriage should be between a [00:52] man and a woman. Congress and President Clinton [00:55] passed a law that gave the states the guarantee that their [00:58] individual laws regarding marriage would be respected. [01:01] The Defense of Marriage Act creates an exception to the [01:05] full faith and credit clause of the constitution so that no [01:08] state can force its laws of marriage on another. [01:12] >>I've always believed that marriage should be left to the [01:14] states because that's where it's always been. The states [01:16] have determined age of marriage, other conditions, and [01:20] over time we've gotten rid of a lot of the discrimination that [01:23] used to exist in marriage laws. And that's now happening. [01:27] People are making decisions. Civil unions, marriage. [01:30] They're deciding in the states and I think that's the [01:32] appropriate place for this to be. [01:34] >>Define marriage. [01:36] >>I believe that marriage is the union between a man and [01:39] a woman. Now, for me as a Christian-- [01:43] for [01:46] me-- [01:48] for me as a Christian is also a sacred union. God's [01:53] in the mix. [01:53] >>Uh- huh. [01:53] >>But-- [01:53] >>Would you [02:00] support a constitutional amendment [02:04] with that definition? [02:06] >>No, I would not. [02:07] >>I think it's wrong for the government to discriminate [02:10] against people because of that person's sexual orientation. [02:15] I think that gay men and women ought to have the same [02:19] rights as heterosexual men and women to [02:23] make contracts, to have hospital visiting rights, to join [02:27] together in marriage. [02:30] >>Do you now believe that gay people should have full [02:33] rights to civil marriage nationwide? [02:36] >>I do. I'm no longer opposed of that. I think if people [02:38] wanna make commitments that last a lifetime, they [02:44] ought to be able to do it. I realized that I was, you know, [02:47] over 60 years old. I grew up in a different time and I was [02:50] hung up about the world. I had all these gay friends. I had [02:54] all these gay couple friends and I was hung up about it and [02:57] I decided I wasn't wrong, [03:02] that it's-- that our society has an interest in [03:06] coherence, and strength, and commitment and recently [03:11] reinforcing loyalties. And if gay couples wanna [03:15] call their union marriage and a [03:19] state agrees and several have now or a religious [03:23] body will sanction it, then I don't think the state should be [03:27] able to stop the religious body from saying it. I don't think [03:30] the rest of us should get in the way of that. I think it's a [03:32] good thing, not a bad thing. [03:33] >>Let's try to avoid nuance, senator. Do you support gay [03:36] marriage? [03:37] >>No. Barack Obama nor I support redefining [03:41] from a-- from a civil side what constitutes marriage. We do [03:45] not support that. That is basically the decision being able to [03:48] be left to the faith and people who practice their faith, the [03:51] determination what you'd call it. [03:52] >>The good news is that as more and more Americans [03:56] come to understand what this is all about, it's a simple [03:58] proposition. Who do you love? Who [04:03] do you love and will you be loyal to the person you love? [04:07] And that's what people are finding now, what marriages [04:11] ought to root about whether their marriage [04:15] is lesbians, or gay man, or heterosexuals. [04:19] >>A little over a year ago in Geneva, I told the nations of [04:22] the world that gay rights are human rights. And human [04:26] rights are gay rights and that the United States would be a [04:30] leader in defending those rights. [04:33] >>I've been going through an evolution on this issue. [04:36] I've always been adamant that gay and lesbian Americans [04:41] should be treated fairly and equally. At a certain point, I've [04:45] just concluded that, for me personally, it [04:51] is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I [04:56] think same- sex couples should be able to get married. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3703591/obama-gay-marriage-josh-earnest/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3703591/obama-gay-marriage-josh-earnest/"},"headline":"White House Avoids Talking About Obama's Gay-Marriage Views","datePublished":"2015-02-10T20:11:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-01T09:02:46.369Z","description":"A textbook case of the White House all-but-confirming a story without actually doing so","url":"https://time.com/3703591/obama-gay-marriage-josh-earnest/","keywords":["White House","Gay Rights","Gay Marriage"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdd6a9dd4ad001b96/69877e798e0601497745a35f/obama1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdd6a9dd4ad001b96/69877e798e0601497745a35f/obama1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Obamas Attend National Prayer Breakfast","caption":"Obamas Attend National Prayer Breakfast","creditText":"Dennis Brack—Pool/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3703591/obama-gay-marriage-josh-earnest/","name":"White House Avoids Talking About Obama's Gay-Marriage Views"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Josh Earnest on Obama and Gay Marriage","description":"Josh Earnest on Obama and Gay Marriage","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/rSnjFxvD/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-02-10T21:23:17.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/rSnjFxvD.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3703591/obama-gay-marriage-josh-earnest/","duration":"PT1M11S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3703591/obama-gay-marriage-josh-earnest/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Know Right Now: Gay Marriage Continues Despite Alabama Judge's Order","description":"Local officials in Alabama began issuing marriage licenses for same-sex couples, after the state's top judge set up a high-stakes legal showdown","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/sIQoOM1I/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-02-09T17:51:45.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/sIQoOM1I.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3703591/obama-gay-marriage-josh-earnest/","duration":"PT1M3S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3703591/obama-gay-marriage-josh-earnest/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Liberal Politicians on DOMA 1996 TO 2013","description":"From Bill and Hillary Clinton to Barak Obama, liberal politicians opposed gay marriage until recently. 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