In 1996, Barack Obama stated in a questionnaire, “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.”

Yet since taking office, the President has taken a great deal of criticism for backtracking on his record regarding LGBT civil rights. Now, in an interview at Netroots Nation with Daily Kos Associate Editor Kalli Joy Gray, a hassled White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer told the audience the 1996 questionnaire was not written by Obama, despite the candidate’s signature being affixed to the bottom of the document. Here’s what was said:

GRAY: In a 1996 Illinois Senate Race questionnaire, Barack Obama wrote, ‘I favor legalizing same sex marriages.’ After the Proposition 8 decision came out in California, David Axelrod said, ‘the President does oppose same sex marriage.’ So it seems like his position has actually evolved from being more supportive of civil rights to being less supportive of civil rights. Is the President going to evolve again and get back to supporting civil rights and gay marriage?

PFEIFFER: Well– a couple things on that. The President has –actually I think the best way to do this is I’m going to try to paraphrase an answer that the President gave.

GRAY: Well I’ve got his exact answer right here. ‘I favor legalizing same sex marriages and would fight efforts to prohibit them.’

PFEIFFER: Well if you actually go back and look, you’ll see that question–that questionnaire was actually filled out by some one else not the President. There’s been a long debate on this and–

GRAY: Wait—So it was a fake questionnaire?

PFEIFFER: No, So what I was going to tell you is the President’s position has been consistent on this but what he said is–

GRAY: Hold on a minute–You’re saying that this was a fake questionnaire?

You can watch the interview here:

This revelation, which comes as Obama has been highlighting his LGBT accomplishments ahead of his reelection campaign, is sure to raise some concerns. Earlier this month, the administration unveiled a website dedicated to the LGBT accomplishments.
–Sean Savett

As the New York Senate prepares to take up legislation legalizing same-sex marriage, New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan appeared on a radio show with the New York Post’s Fred Dicker this morning urging legislators to vote against the measure. “We’re realistic to know that this is an ongoing struggle,” Dolan, who recently compared marriage equality a dictatorial infringement of rights, admitted. He said that the Church had been working closely with lawmakers to draft provisions exempting religious organizations from recognizing civil same-sex marriages, but stressed that the carve-outs would still not influence religious leaders to support the measure:

DOLAN: This is just perilous, Fred, we feel, to have the state tamper in one of the sacred and established and constituent definitions in the human project, namely the definition of marriage. We just feel it would be detrimental for the common good. We’ve got to admit we come at this from the posture of religious belief, of biblical morality and we find it unjust and immoral from those grounds. But this goes a little bit beyond this. This is a very violation of what we consider natural law that’s embedded in every man and woman and we’re really worried as Americans that it’s going to be detrimental to the common good. [...]

Even if there are so-called carve outs for religious freedom we still worry about the detrimental effect upon society, upon culture, and certainly upon our individual churches….And we worry, what the government gives, the government can take away so you may have very benevolent people now who say in no way are we going to force any religion to do something against their constituents and their beliefs and we will see that there are carve outs, but what about a term or two down the line, where you have someone who says, oh by the way, we’re going to take that carve out away from you.

Listen:

Religious exemptions have served as a stumbling block for some Republicans. The measure already exempts religious organizations from recognizing civil same-sex marriages, but opponents of the bill say that these provisions don’t go far enough. They want to “protect individuals, businesses and nonprofit groups opposed to gay marriage from being charged with discrimination for refusing to provide their property or services to be used in a same-sex wedding.” The assembly passed marriage equality on Wednesday and the Senate could move the measure to the floor as early as today. [H/T: Joe Sudbay]