Tony Kushner on President Barack Obama: “Of course he’s in favor of gay marriage!”

There is a terrific piece on playwright Tony Kushner in the latest issue of Newsweek, so good that I sat down and read it last night from start to finish. I highly recommend you read it!

One part that jumped out that I want to share with you is the section about gay marriage. Writer Jeremy McCarter at one point asks Kushner about his delight at Barack Obama’s presidency so far and how he reconciles his belief that Obama might be “a genuinely great president” with the fact that he isn’t in favor of one of the causes dearest to Kushner: gay marriage.

“Pbbbht! Of course he’s in favor of gay marriage!” Kushner said. “He’s absolutely in favor. Does anybody actually believe that Barack Obama and Michelle Obama think that we shouldn’t have—that this man who is a constitutional-law scholar—is it a complicated issue? Obama is capable of parsing infinitely more complicated questions than this. Read the Iowa Supreme Court decision—it’s magnificently crystal clear. There’s no issue here. It’s over. It’s done. Could the first black man or white man or Jesus Christ himself get elected in 2008 saying he believes in gay marriage? Of course not.”