The Obama Administration tiptoed even closer to supporting gay marriage today, with a second member of the Cabinet coming out flatly in support of treating same-sex couples the same as couples of opposite sexes.
Time's Mark Halperin asked Education Secretary Arne Duncan on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" today whether he believes "that same-sex men and women should be able to get legally married in the United States?"
"Yes, I do," Duncan replied.
Shaun Donovan, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, earlier announced that he supported gay marriage. And Vice President Joe Biden said yesterday that he's "comfortable" with men marrying men, a line that some took to be an endorsement of the practice, but which President Obama's aides insisted was nothing new.
Obama continues to say he's opposed to gay marriage, which he supported as a local politician in Illinois in the 1990s but dropped as he sought statewide office. However, he has said he's "evolving" on the issue and gay rights activists are pressing him to move faster and to include an endorsement of gay marriage in the Democratic Party's platform.