President Obama's stance on gay marriage has come under fire recently after former White House advisor David Axelrod made the claim that the President supported same-sex marriage all along, despite articulating to the pubic that he didn't in earlier campaigns. In response to Axelrod's allegation, Obama told BuzzFeed on Tuesday that "the notion" that he was "always in favor of [gay marriage] isn't quite accurate," and that his feelings have, in fact, evolved.
Justin Nelson, President of The National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, came to President Obama's defense in a Wednesday conversation with HuffPost Live, arguing that Axelrod's comments are just a ploy to promote his new book, even though Obama's proven to be a consistent ally to the gay community.
"David Axelrod is out to sell books and probably will sell a lot of books, and we all know controversy helps sell books," he explained. "The fact of the matter is Americans were not there. It was somewhat widely known that the President when he was running for his state senate seat had answered a questionnaire that he was in favor of marriage equality."
Regardless of what Obama's saying now or has said in the past, Nelson feels the President's done a more than sufficient job fighting for LGBT rights.
"I think the thing we have to remember here is that we had a choice in that election between a candidate who was pro-civil unions, pro-repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' and another candidate who was supportive of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' did not support civil unions and supported a constitutional amendment in his home state banning marriage equality," he recalled.
"So was there an issue playing politics with an election? Of course -- that's always the case on hot button issues," he continued. "[But] we judge a man by his actions, not by his words, and I think the actions of this president have been very pro-LGBT."
Watch more from HuffPost Live's conversation surrounding Obama's stance on gay marriage here.
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