President Barack Obama should listen to his wife when it comes to his position on same-sex marriage, former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey says.
“If he could only listen to Michelle more often,” McGreevey, who is openly gay, said in an appearance on Monday night on CNN’s “In the Arena,” referring to the first lady’s views on same-sex marriage.
It wasn’t immediately clear what McGreevey was referring to because Michelle Obama has never publicly said she favors same-sex marriage, though she has said she backs equal rights for gay and lesbian people.
“The world as it is should be one that rejects discrimination of all kinds,” she said at a fundraiser in 2008. “Barack believes that we must fight for the world as it should be, a world where together we work to reverse discriminatory laws like DOMA and ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’” she said, leaving out any explicit support for same-sex marriage.
“I think the president is moving,” said the former Democratic governor, who resigned seven years ago after admitting to having an affair with a man and announcing that he was “a gay American.” He was interviewed by Eliot Spitzer, the former New York governor, who also resigned amid a sex scandal.
“You know for many elected officials they all started in the same place,” McGreevey said. “You know marriage is between a man and a woman, but they understand that they are moving inevitably, catching up to the American public.”
The passage of New York’s same-sex marriage law last week was a sign of “the basic decency of the American people,” he said.
Though current New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, said over the weekend that he would never support gay marriage, McGreevey said he thinks his home state’s time will come and that then, he will wed his partner of several years. “When it comes to New Jersey, which, I believe that inevitably it will, I think that time will come,” he said.
Meanwhile, a Quinnipiac University poll released early Tuesday found widespread support for New York’s new law, with 54 percent of state voters approving of it, while 40 percent were opposed. Among voters under 35, the support was even stronger, with 70 percent approving and 26 percent disapproving. In contrast, 57percent of voters over age 65 are opposed to the law, while 37 percent support it.
Sixty-seven percent of Democrats and 30 percent of Republicans surveyed said they support New York’s law, while 28 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of Republicans said they’re opposed to it. Among independents, 56 percent support the law, while 39 percent are opposed, the poll found.
