President Obama 'Comes Out' in Favor of Gay Marriage

It is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married. — President Barack Obama, May 9, 2012

One little sentence that changes everything for some Americans.

Americans like me. I am a gay American. My president thinks I should have the right to be married to the man I love should I wish to. (So, now all I need is the man I love...)

There will be the predictable reactions from the usual suspects on all sides. Some will say that it's too little, too late, that it's political pandering. Others will say it's a slap in the face to tradition. I'm sure that all sides will be asking for a contribution to help support or stop him. All I can think is that it's frankly kind of nice that he said it, especially since the day of his historic election was marred for GLBT Californians by the passage of Prop 8, which stripped us of our recently granted right to marry legally.

I attended an impromptu rally in support of President Obama and his historic decision the evening of May 9 in in front of the . Beverly Hills Mayor Dr. Willie Brien was there and spoke. Cars honked, people yelled encouragement out of windows, American flags were waved. 

Chatting with Mayor Brien, Planning Commissioner Brian Rosenstein and , I had to share a story. As a teenager, I went to the first ever gay pride march in my hometown of Northampton, MA. If I'd been asked then if I thought same-sex marriage would be legal anywhere in the United States in my lifetime, much less that a sitting president coming up for re-election would publicly state he was in favor of it, my answer would have been "when pigs fly."

To paraphrase the late Katharine Hepburn, come the morning of Wednesday, May 9, there was pork in the treetops...