Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Barack Obama was the first African-American president of the United States. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004.
President Joe Biden to Sign Marriage Equality Into Law
(CNN) -- One Sunday morning in May of 2012, Vice President Joe Biden shocked the country with an unexpected declaration delivered in an interview on NBC's Meet the Press: He came out in public support of same-sex marriage for the first time."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," Biden said when asked whether he was comfortable with same-sex marriage.Those words -- which Biden insisted in subsequent years were unplanned -- marked a stunning personal evolution for the longtime creature of Washington, who as senator had voted to block federal recognition of same-sex marriages and previously insisted that marriage should only take place between a man and a woman.
The interview would also turn out to be a watershed moment in modern American politics, prompting then-President Barack Obama to stake out the same position several days later and giving permission to other national leaders to also follow suit.This week, a little more than 10 years after that famous TV moment, Biden is marking another important milestone as a staunch protector of LGBTQ rights.
