During an interview with ABC News on Monday, President Barack Obama noted that gay couples should have civil unions, but stopped short of actually backing gay marriage, stating that he is "still working" on his personal views of gay marriage. Currently, six states will grant same-sex marriage licenses: Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, and Washington, D.C.

Ironically, there are currently more states in the US that allow first cousin marriages, where someone can legally marry their blood relative, than same-sex marriages, as illustrated by the graph on the right.

In a five month time period during 2008, California legally performed same-sex marriages but discontinued after the passage of Proposition 8, which amended the California constitution limiting marriage to one man and one woman. Equality California, the pro-gay marriage group that fought against Prop 8 leading up to the 2008 vote, announced yesterday that they will not make an effort to repeal the proposition in the 2012 election, instead focusing resources on changing the "...psychological, cultural and emotional triggers around lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and kids that continue to impede securing full equality, including the freedom to marry," as stated in their press release.

Globally, same-sex marriage relationships are recognized worldwide in almost a dozen countries, including Canada, Spain and Belgium, while over twenty nations recognize civil unions and registered partners.

President Obama's comments this week come a full year after expressing that his views of gay marriage were "evolving." He’s always supported civil unions, but has not gone as far as to back same-sex marriage. He has said that his evolving views were influenced by close friends and family, as well as children of gay couples he knows.

Numerous recent polls suggest a slight majority of Americans favor giving same-sex couples the right to marry. In March of this year, 53% of those surveyed said that gay marriage should be legal. Five years before, that number was around 32%. That March poll was repeated two months later by Gallup in May, and again showed 53% of Americans supporting making gay marriage legal. The growing support for gay marriage comes on the heels of President Obama signing into law the repeal of the ban on openly gay men and women serving in the military, otherwise known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," which stood for 17 years.