At a town hall in Tampa, Obama is asked what he's doing to provide equality for gays and lesbians with regard to same-sex marriage and other rights. The President completely dodged any talk of marriage but talked about the bill to provide federal benefits to same-sex partners.
Here's my transcript.
"As I said last night my belief is that a basic principle in our Constitution is that if you're obeying the law, if you're following the rules, that you should be treated the same regardless of who you are.
"I think that principle applies to gay and lesbian couples, so at the federal level one of the things that we're trying to do is to make sure that partnerships are recognized for purposes of benefits, so that hospital visitation for example is something that is permitted, so that social security or pension benefits or others, that same-sex couples are recognized in all those circumstances.
"We actually have an opportunity of passing a law that's been introduced in Congress right now and my hope is that this year we can get it done just for federal employees and federal workers. A lot of companies on their own, some of the best run companies, have adopted these practices. I think it's the right thing to do and it makes sense for us to take a leadership role in ensuring that people are treated the same.
"Regardless of your personal opinions the notion that somebody who's working really hard for 30 years can't take their death benefits and transfer them to the person that they love most in the world and who has supported them their whole lives doesn't seem fair, doesn't seem right and I think it's the right thing to do."
Watch, AFTER THE JUMP…