The Candidates on Gay Marriage

Hillary Clinton- Clinton opposes same-sex marriage and favors civil unions but said she would not stand in the way if New York passed a law legalizing same-sex marriage. In the U.S. Senate, she opposed amending the Constitution to ban gay marriage. While she has solicited and received the support of gay and lesbian groups, many gay activists were alarmed over her March 2007 comment that the morality of homosexuality was up "to others to conclude." She later released a statement saying that she does not believe homosexuality is immoral.

Alan Keyes- Keyes favors a constitutional amendment to prohibit gay marriage. At the 2007 Values Voter debate, Keyes said that "if we don't take action at the federal level then our government will have defaulted in its respect for one of our most precious, unalienable rights, which is the right to respect God's God-given institution of the natural family." During his 2004 senatorial campaign, Keyes said that "if we embrace homosexuality as a proper basis for marriage, we are saying that it's possible to have a marriage state that in principle excludes procreation and is based simply on the premise of selfish hedonism." He also said that he does not believe in a biological basis for homosexuality.

John McCain- McCain says marriage should be between a man and a woman and that states should regulate marriage law. He opposed a federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, but endorsed an Arizona ballot initiative to limit marriage to a man and a woman. He also supported the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which banned federal recognition of gay marriage and domestic partnerships.

Barack Obama- Obama says that he believes "marriage is between a man and a woman" but he wrote in The Audacity of Hope that he remains "open to the possibility that my unwillingness to support gay marriage is misguided ... I may have been infected with society's prejudices and predilections and attributed them to God." He supports granting civil unions for gay couples and opposed a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. In March 2007, Obama initially dodged questions about the morality of homosexuality. He later went on to say on national television that he did not believe homosexuals are immoral.

Ron Paul- Paul writes that while he opposes states being "forced" to accept same-sex marriage, he also opposes a constitutional amendment that would prohibit gay marriage on the grounds that it would be a "major usurpation of the states' power." Paul described the current military "don't ask don't tell" policy as a "decent" one, saying that disruptive sexual behavior of any kind should be dealt with: "We don't get our rights because we're gays or women or minorities. We get our rights from our creator as individuals. So every individual should be treated the same way."