Obama's endorsement of gay marriage results in 11% increase in support among NC African-Americans

[RZM]

4. It's called 'leadership'

And IMO, it's part of the president's job. Obama can't will gay marriage into existence. But he can provide an example. This is actually quite a coup, because the black community is way behind the rest of the Democratic constituency on marriage equality. But they also strongly support the president. If he says something is ok, many in the black community will follow suit. Years down the road, this will be cited as a major event in the path towards legalizing same-sex marriage and the racial aspects of the president's position will not go unnoticed.