【英语生活】奥巴马正式表态 支持同性婚姻

President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he supports gay marriage, reversing his position on a controversial social issue just six months before the November election and adopting a stance fraught with political implications.

Mr. Obama had been under intense pressure this week to lay out a clear stance on gay marriage after Vice President Joe Biden and several top advisers endorsed it. Mr. Obama said he 'personally' believes gays and lesbians should have the right to marry, a position he came to after several years of talking to friends and family and thinking about gay members of the military and of his staff who are raising children together in monogamous relationships.

'I've been going through an evolution on this issue. I've always been adamant that gay and lesbian Americans should be treated fairly and equally,' Mr. Obama said in an interview with ABC's 'Good Morning America' anchor Robin Roberts. 'At a certain point, I just concluded that for me, personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think that same sex couples should be able to get married.'

(This story and related background material will be available on The Wall Street Journal website, WSJ.com.)

Mr. Obama was against same-sex marriage as a candidate in 2008, but supported civil unions. In the fall of 2010, he said his views on gay marriage were 'evolving,' a stance that had widely been interpreted as moving toward an endorsement. The president had been asked numerous times afterward whether his position had changed. Each time he deflected the question and pointed to his record on other gay rights issues.

On Wednesday, he said, 'I had hesitated on gay marriage in part because I thought civil unions would be sufficient.

'And I was sensitive to the fact that for a lot of people the word 'marriage' was something that invokes very powerful traditions, religious beliefs and so forth,' he said.

Mr. Obama's politically cautious stance had become untenable in recent days, in no small part because of the pro-gay marriage positions taken by Mr. Biden and other members of Mr. Obama's own cabinet.

Mr. Obama's injection of gay marriage into the 2012 election poses potential risks and rewards for him.

A March Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that 49% of Americans support gay marriage, an increase from 41% in 2009. Some 40% opposed gay marriage in the March poll.

Support among African-Americans, who are key to the campaign's re-election strategy, has been relatively low in the past. Still, views have evolved: The Journal poll showed African-American support for gay marriage rose from 32% in 2009 to 50% in March.

Mr. Obama's endorsement of gay marriage could energize young voters, who support gay marriage by wide margins--it drew 57% support among people ages 18 to 34 in the Journal poll. In a report after her interview with Mr. Obama, Ms. Roberts said the president talked about being influenced by his young daughters.

Mr. Obama's position puts him squarely at odds with that of Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee. Mr. Romney has said he believes marriage should be between a man and a woman, a stance he repeated this week. Mr. Romney also opposes civil unions and has said he would back a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

Some opponents of gay marriage are urging Mr. Romney to use the gay marriage issue to try to energize socially conservative Republicans and increase voter turnout in November.

Mr. Biden had put Mr. Obama's position under the spotlight when he said Sunday on NBC's 'Meet the Press' that he's 'absolutely comfortable' with same-sex couples getting married. Then on Monday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, a friend of Mr. Obama's from Chicago, publicly endorsed same-sex marriage. Shaun Donovan, Mr. Obama's housing secretary, had also publicly said he supported gay marriage.

The string of endorsements raised fresh questions about Mr. Obama's position and sparked intensified calls from gay-rights activists for him to endorse gay marriage before November.

The president's view, while welcomed by some Democrats, also has the potential to divide his party. Some members of the party have been pushing for Mr. Obama to include support for gay marriage as a plank of the party platform when he accepts the Democratic nomination at the convention in September.

Mr. Obama's aides have said they intend to argue against including gay marriage as part of the party platform by making the case that not all Democrats seeking election share that position, which could hurt them in some states and congressional districts. It's unclear what the president's position will be now on including the issue as part of the platform.

Prior to Wednesday, Mr. Obama was last asked about his position on gay marriage in an April 9 interview with Rolling Stone magazine. He replied with an answer he has taken to giving in recent months--'I'm not going to make news in this publication'--and detailed his record on gay rights issues.

Carol E. Lee

Associated Press2012年5月8日在华盛顿，美国总统奥巴马在亚太裔美国人国会研究会(Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies)的宴会上讲话。
美国总统奥巴马(Barack Obama)周三说，他支持同性婚姻。在距11月的美国大选仅半年时间之际，他改变了对这个争议性社会问题的看法，采取了一种颇具政治含义的立场。

继副总统拜登(Joe Biden)和其他几位高级顾问都对同性婚姻表示支持后，奥巴马本周承受着对该问题明确表态的巨大压力。奥巴马说，他“个人”认为，男同性恋者和女同性恋者应享有结婚的权利，这一看法是他与朋友和家人经过几年时间讨论，以及他对军队和自己属下当中那些有着一对一关系并养育子女的同性恋者思考后得出的结果。

奥巴马在接受美国广播公司(ABC)“早安美国”(Good Morning America)节目主持人罗伯茨(Robin Roberts)采访时说：我对这个问题的看法在不断演变，我一直坚定地认为，美国的男同性恋与女同性恋者应当受到公平公正的对待。他说：从某种程度上说，当然这只是我刚刚形成的个人看法，就是我要向前迈一步并肯定地表示，我认为同性伴侣应该能结婚。

奥巴马2008年参选总统时曾反对同性婚姻，但支持其民事结合。2010年秋季，他说自己在同性婚姻上的态度不断“演变”，这一立场被普遍认为是他在向支持该问题转变。此后，奥巴马被问过无数次是否改变了立场，而每次他都是打擦边球，指出自己在其它同性权利问题上的表现。

奥巴马说：我曾经感到敏感的是，对很多人来说，“结婚”这个词能让人想到有强大影响力的传统、宗教信仰和其它力量。

奥巴马在政治上的谨慎立场近来变得难以维继，这在很大程度上要归因于拜登和奥巴马内阁中其他成员对同性婚姻采取的支持态度。

奥巴马在2012年美国大选中打出同性婚姻牌对他来说可能既有风险，也有好处。

《华尔街日报》和美国全国广播公司(NBC News)今年3月的民调显示，49%的美国人支持同性婚姻，高于2009年41%的支持率。另外，这次民调还显示，大约40%的人反对同性婚姻。

支持同性婚姻的非裔美国人的比例在过去一直相对较低。而赢得非裔美国人的支持是奥巴马竞选连任策略的关键。不过，非裔美国人的看法也在演变：《华尔街日报》的民调显示，非裔美国人中同性婚姻支持者的比例在今年3月升高到50%，而在2009年这一比例是32%。

奥巴马对同性婚姻的支持可能会让年轻选民感到振奋。年轻选民中同性婚姻支持者的比例大大超出其他群体。《华尔街日报》的民调显示，年龄在18至34岁的人中，有57%支持同性婚姻。采访完奥巴马之后，罗伯茨在一次报道中说，据奥巴马说，自己受到了年幼的女儿们的影响。

奥巴马的这一立场使自己与罗姆尼完全对立了起来。罗姆尼预计将成为共和党总统候选人。罗姆尼说，他认为婚姻应该是男人和女人之间的事。他在本周又再次重申了这个立场。罗姆尼还反对民事结合，并表示他将支持在宪法修正案中把婚姻定义为只能发生在男女之间。

一些同性婚姻的反对者正在敦促罗姆尼利用同性婚姻的问题给社会保守派共和党人士鼓劲，提高11月份总统选举的选民投票率。

拜登周日在NBC“媒体见面会”栏目(Meet the Press)中说，他完全能够接受同性婚姻。此举让奥巴马的立场成为人们关注的焦点。随后，在周一，奥巴马在芝加哥时的老友、教育部长邓肯(Arne Duncan)公开表示支持同性婚姻。住房及城市发展部(Housing and Urban Development)部长多诺万(Shaun Donovan)也公开表示支持同性婚姻。

这一连串的公开支持让人们重新开始关注奥巴马的立场，同性恋维权活动人士更强烈地呼吁奥巴马在11月之前就支持同性婚姻表态。

尽管奥巴马支持同性婚姻的观点受到了一些民主党人士的欢迎，但同时也可能在民主党内造成分裂。一些民主党人一直在力促奥巴马在9月接受民主党总统候选人提名的会议上将对同性婚姻的支持纳入到党纲中。

奥巴马的助手说，他们打算反对将同性婚姻作为党纲的一部分，理由是并非所有参加竞选的民主党人士都持同样的立场，这可能不利于他们在一些州和国会选区获得支持。目前还不清楚奥巴马在此事上的立场。

周三之前，奥巴马最近一次被问到对同性婚姻的看法是在4月9日接受《滚石》(Rolling Stone)杂志的采访时。他当时给出了他在这几个月经常使用的一个答案－－我不打算在这次采访中制造新闻，随后他详述了自己在同性恋权利方面的政策。

Carol E. Lee

（更新完成）

（本文版权归道琼斯公司所有，未经许可不得翻译或转载。）