Mark McKinnon Quotes

Obama sees himself as such a huge change that he can be cautious about other societal changes. But what he doesn't realize is that legalizing gay marriage is like electing a black president. Before you do it, it seems inconceivable. Once it's done, you can't remember what all the fuss was about.

Gay marriage will be universally accepted in time. But if I may be so bold as to say to gays and lesbians, don't wait for that time to arrive. Just as my father and his generation did not 'wait' for their civil rights, nor should you. The toothpaste ain't going back in the tube. The tide has turned.

Sooner or later they are going to live in a New York City where gay marriage is not only legal, but it's common and they don't even notice.

Now, being one who lived in the era of Obama, there are so many markers of improvement made. It's hard to be mindful of that, in the same way you're going, 'Oh everything's cool now!' and it isn't. But I try to be mindful of how much of an improvement there has been because that gives hope. You need hope. I need hope!

Obama stands as a signal that this nation will continue to redefine what it means to push beyond the borders of what's possible.

For me, Barack Obama's election was a milestone of the most extraordinary kind. On the day he was elected I felt such hope in my heart. I thought we were seeing the beginning of a new era of equal opportunity across race and gender such as America had never known before.

I don't think that a vote for Barack Obama is a symbolic thing. I think it's much more than that. It's not just a black man. It's not just a feel-good vote. It's the idea of electing someone who really does want to make a difference.

I'm so, so full of joy that America elected Obama.

I feel strongly for gay marriage to be accepted.

Obama is for same-sex marriage. If the president is saying that, then who am I to go the other way?

I cannot be a placard waver for every campaign; that's why I have mostly kept quiet about gay marriage.

Together with President Obama, we are moving America forward, not back.

The death of anti-gay hate speech is no doubt being hastened by the head-spinning speed with which gays as a group - to say nothing of gay marriage - are becoming an unremarkable and even quite traditional parts of American life.

I don't understand what the big deal is with gay marriage. Get over it, people.

I don’t think that gay people threaten my marriage and I don’t think that the nation is in danger from gays.

I am proud to be the first Republican to support marriage equality; it is something I have had in my heart for a long time… Let’s open the floodgates and take this across America.

I don’t believe that opposite sex and same sex marriages are the same, but I do believe, with growing numbers of Americans, that the time for denigrating or stigmatizing same sex relationships are over.

Things are changing so rapidly, it’s going to be a political liability in the near term for an individual to say “I oppose gay marriage.” Mark my words.

Isn't that sort of what happened with gay marriage? Right before gay marriage was legalized, everybody was just losing their minds and, like, the worst possible things were happening, and it was just all like it couldn't get any worse, and then it suddenly got a lot better.

Every generation is more open to new things.

I'm a kid from Chicago. I know what it was like to see Obama become president. We felt the tectonic plates of the world shift.

Changes are inseparable from democracy. To defend democracy is to defend the possibility of change; in turn, changes alone can strengthen democracy.

By in large in this country the issue of gay rights and equality should be past the point of debate. Really, there should be no debate anymore.

They might have a long way to go before truly accepting gay people into their lives, but they have accepted the show into their living rooms each and every week.

As an American people, what is greatest about our history are the many times we have led this world away from hate, towards hope.