Prop. 8 Halts White House Briefing

Presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs, asked by CongressDaily for a President Obama's reaction to the Proposition 8 ruling, ended the White House press briefing rather quickly Tuesday.

"Well, I have not talked to the president about it," he said, adding that Obama's views on the issue are well known. Then he ended the briefing.

Gibbs had taken nearly 40 minutes' worth of questioning on the subject of the president's U.S. Supreme Court pick, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, with only a few exceptions.

Though Gibbs's words did not speak to Prop. 8 directly, then-candidate Obama did oppose amending California's constitution to ban same-sex marriage. In a letter to San Francisco's Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club last June, he wrote, "As the Democratic nominee for President, I am proud to join with and support the LGBT community in an effort to set our nation on a course that recognizes LGBT Americans with full equality under the law. That is why I support extending fully equal rights and benefits to same sex couples under both state and federal law. That is why I support repealing the Defense of Marriage Act and the 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' policy, and the passage of laws to protect LGBT Americans from hate crimes and employment discrimination. And that is why I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution, and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or those of other states."

But Obama's own words were also used by opponents of marriage equality in robocalls to voters in which he was heard saying, "I believe marriage is a union between a man and a woman. Now, for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. God is in the mix." The audio came from Obama's debate appearance last August with Rick Warren at Saddleback Church in California.

The Advocate has asked the White House for an official reaction to Tuesday's California supreme court ruling on Proposition 8.