President Barack Obama opposes North Carolina's Amendment One, a ballot question on May 8 to ban same-sex marriages and civil unions under the state constitution.
"While the president does not weigh in on every single ballot measure in every state, the record is clear that the president has long opposed divisive and discriminatory efforts to deny rights and benefits to same-sex couples," said Obama's North Carolina campaign spokesman, Cameron French, in a statement Friday. "That’s what the North Carolina ballot initiative would do -- it would single out and discriminate against committed gay and lesbian couples -- and that’s why the president does not support it."
Same-sex marriages are already banned under North Carolina law. However, the measure would ban them under the constitution. The measure passed the state legislature in September to qualify for the ballot.
President Barack Obama also opposed California's Proposition 8, which passed and added a same-sex marriage ban to the state constitution in 2008 but is the subject of a current court challenge, as a federal appellate court has ruled it unconstitutional. However, Obama has said that his views on gay marriage are "evolving."
The Huffington Post's Sam Stein and Amanda Terkel reported that the Obama campaign and gay rights groups have struggled over the issue of including a same-sex marriage plank in the Democratic party platform at the September convention.