Hillary Clinton has now set the gold standard for supporting marriage equality in the 2016 field. Not that any Republicans were a threat, but here's a statement her campaign provided to
Chris Geidner at BuzzFeed:
“Hillary Clinton supports marriage equality and hopes the Supreme Court will come down on the side of same-sex couples being guaranteed that constitutional right,” Adrienne Elrod, spokesperson, Hillary for America, told BuzzFeed News.
This is a significant step beyond where Clinton was just last year when
she sparred with NPR interviewer Terry Gross over her marriage position and why she had evolved from favoring civil unions in 2008 to
stating her support for marriage equality in 2013 after leaving the State Department. In the interview with Gross, Clinton stopped short of saying same-sex marriage should be a fundamental right that's a constitutional guarantee. Instead she relied on a tried and true talking point from 2008:
“For me, marriage had always been a matter left to the states.”
Not anymore. Clinton now supports marriage equality for every same-sex couple in every corner of the country. It was a smart move. The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on same-sex marriage in two weeks with a decision on the matter expected in June. Clinton would have never lived it down with the Democratic base if she had been on the wrong side of that issue as the Supreme Court takes it up.
Now she has set herself light years apart from every declared Republican candidate — all of whom oppose same-sex marriage and believe the matter should be left to the states.