Obama backed marriage equality in 1996.

Politico’s Ben Smith notes a new report in the Windy City Times showing that President-elect Obama supported marriage equality as recently as 1996. In a questionnaire filled out for a Chicago LGBT newspaper, Obama then wrote, “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages,and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.” Obama now says that he opposes gay marriage, although he supports civil unions and has come out against a federal ban on gay marriage.