Source+5

"Same-Sex Marriage, Civil Unions, and Domestic Partnerships." //Same-Sex Marriage News//. N.p., 13 Aug. 2012. Web. 13 Aug. 2012. <[]> >
 * 1) Days later, on May 9, [|President Obama] declared for the first time [|that he supports same-sex marriage], putting the moral power of his presidency behind a social issue that continues to divide the country.
 * 2) His support ended years of public equivocating over the divisive social issue for the president, who previously said he opposed gay marriage but repeatedly said he was “evolving” on the issue because of contact with friends and others who are gay.
 * 3) Mr. Obama’s change of heart puts him at even sharper odds with his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, who opposes same-sex marriage and favors an amendment to the United States Constitution to forbid it.
 * 4) The issue continues to simmer in a number of court cases that appear headed toward the Supreme Court. In February, a federal appeals court in California struck down the ban put into place by the Proposition 8 referendum in 2008. (For more on Proposition 8, click [|here.)] In May, a federal appellate panel in Boston [|declared that the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutionally denies federal benefits] to married gay couples.
 * 5) Prior to 2012, same-sex marriage was also legalized in New York, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C. Early in 2012, Washington State and Maryland both approved same-sex marriage laws, but neither took effect immediately and both were expected to be challenged in referendums.
 * 6) For years, [|gay rights organizations and major civil rights organizations viewed each other warily] . African-American leaders often saw the gay rights groups as insensitive to racial concerns, and some resented the movement’s use of civil rights language to make the case for same-sex marriage. Advocates for gay rights, in turn, sometimes blamed socially conservative African-Americans for their defeat in crucial electoral battles.
 * 7) But since the relationship reached something of a crisis with the passage of [|Proposition 8] , California’s ballot initiative against same-sex marriage, in 2008, leaders in both movements have made an effort to bring their groups closer together.
 * 8) Now, conversations among leaders in the gay, black and Latino communities have borne significant fruit: In May 2012, [|the board of the N.A.A.C.P. voted to endorse same-sex marriage] .
 * 9) And then, in early June, representatives of several national gay rights organizations gathered at New York City’s Stonewall Inn, often described as the birthplace of their movement, [|to announce that they would march to protest the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk practice] , under which the police each year have been stopping hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, most of them black or Latino, in an effort to prevent crime.
 * 10) Some of the gay rights leaders specifically cited support from the N.A.A.C.P. for same-sex marriage as a reason they decided to oppose the [|stop-and-frisk]  policy.
 * 11) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12px;">The same-sex-marriage and stop-and-frisk issues are only the most visible signs of closer collaboration.
 * 12) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12px;">Around the country, gay rights groups have joined minority advocacy organizations in political battles on behalf of voting rights and affirmative action. And in California, Oregon and Colorado, gay rights organizations have formed partnerships with immigrant rights groups to fight aggressive <span style="color: #666699; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none;">[|immigration] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12px;"> laws.
 * 13) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12px;">Mr. Obama’s remarks — becoming the first sitting president to support extending the rights and status of marriage to gay couples — came after long-standing pressure from gay rights activists who are among his most loyal constituents but have been frustrated by his refusal to weigh in on the issue.
 * 14) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12px;">But the decision to risk the potential political damage in an election year appears to have been driven by the unexpected declarations of support for gay marriage by his vice president and several cabinet members.
 * 15) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12px;">His remarks came after Vice President [|Joseph R. Biden Jr.] [|said on May 6] that he is “absolutely comfortable” with the idea of gay Americans marrying each other. [|Arne Duncan], the secretary education, said a day later that he flatly supports gay marriage.