Melody Barnes, the head of President Obama's Domestic Policy Council, told students at Boston College Law School on Nov. 9 that she disagrees with her boss on the issue of same-sex marriage."I really appreciate your frustration and your disappointment with the President's position on this issue," said Barnes when asked by a student if she supported equal civil marriage rights for gays and lesbians. "[W]ith regard to my own views, those are my own views, and I come to my experience based on what I've learned, based on the relationships I've had with friends, and they're relationships that I respect, and the children that they are raising, and that is something that I support."
Barnes, who recently became the first woman to join President Obama on the golf course, said that "very robust" policy and constitutional conversations take place at the White House on this topic.
She noted, however, that President Obama "hasn't articulated a shift in his position".
Although President Obama continues to oppose same-sex marriage, Barnes said that he is trying to "move the ball forward" for gay, lesbian, and transgendered Americans by wanting to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, encouraging changes to military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, and taking action to combat hate crimes.
Barnes made her remarks in response to a Boston College Law School student who said that he was an Obama primary and general election voter who was deeply disappointed in the religion-based rationale that the president has offered to explain his opposition to civil marriage rights for gays and lesbians.