Press Release

Gillibrand Statement on President Obama’s Support for Marriage Equality

May 9, 2012

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, one of the Senate’s leading voices for marriage equality, issued the following statement today after President Obama announced his support for same sex marriage:

“Throughout the 2008 campaign President Obama called on all of us to bend the moral arc of history towards justice. As President, he has backed up those words for LGBT Americans through his leadership in repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and by instructing his Justice Department to no longer prosecute DOMA cases. But our work is far from done. The President’s unequivocal support today in favor of all committed couples to marry the person they love is a watershed moment in American history that will provide the leadership needed to finally repeal DOMA and win the unfinished fight for equality for all Americans.”

Senator Gillibrand, who helped lead the effort in the Senate to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” is an original co-sponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act, authored by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and co-sponsored by Senators Leahy (D-Vt.), John Kerry (D-Mass.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Mark Udall (D-Colo.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Dan Inouye (D-Hawaii), and Daniel Akaka(D-Hawaii).