March 24, 2012
Houston Mayor: Don't Expect Obama to Endorse Marriage Equality Before Election
Michael K. Lavers READ TIME: 1 MIN.
Houston Mayor Annise Parker said Friday that she does not expect President Barack Obama publicly endorse marriage for same-sex couples before the election.
"I would be shocked to see it," she said in response to EDGE's question. "I would not expect to see it."
Parker, who co-chairs a coalition of nearly 200 mayors who support marriage equality, made her comments at the opening of a gathering of LGBT journalists and bloggers sponsored by the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association and the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr., Foundation.
She further pointed out that the economy will remain the dominant issue going into the general election.
"What I'm told as a candidate is that you stay on message, you figure out what the American people want to know about and you stay on that message and you stay on that message until you're sick of talking about that message," said Parker, responding to whether LGBT activists should expect the president to endorse marriage equality during his re-election campaign. "I would expect that his advisors tell him he doesn't need to go down that path."
Based in Washington, D.C., Michael K. Lavers has appeared in the New York Times, BBC, WNYC, Huffington Post, Village Voice, Advocate and other mainstream and LGBT media outlets. He is an unapologetic political junkie who thoroughly enjoys living inside the Beltway.
