Obama to gay protesters: Rick Warren's my inauguration pastor pick
No backing down whatsoever today from President-elect Barack Obama in the face of some strong criticism from gay and lesbian interests over his choice of Saddleback's Rick Warren for the invocation speaker at the Jan. 20 inauguration.
As pastor of his mega-church in Lake Forest, Warren was an outspoken proponent of Prop. 8, which passed on Nov. 4 and overturns a court decision allowing same-sex marriage in California.
As reported earlier today, gay and lesbian groups, which had been key backers of Obama but largely silent on his ostentatious other moves toward the political center since winning the White House, erupted in a loud chorus of opposition to Obama's pick of Warren.
But at another news conference at his transition headquarters in Chicago today, Obama held firm, saying an important premise of his entire campaign was that different sides can disagree on some issues without being disagreeable and unable to work together on others. After all, last spring he claimed he attended the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church for 20 years while disagreeing with his radical sermons, which he also said he hadn't heard.
He said he maintains his consistent support for equal rights for gays and lesbians. And he's not changing his choice of who gives the opening prayer at his historic Inauguration on the Capitol steps the morning of Jan. 20.
We'll let the president-elect speak for himself on this breaking news video just below here.
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