HILLARY Clinton has released a new campaign video pledging her support for same-sex marriage in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election.
Entitled “Equal”, the video highlights the rights of LGBT people as indistinguishable from those of human rights, and calls for Americans to “stand with LGBT families”.
“All love is equal. It’s time for marriage equality.”
Clinton’s declaration is a watershed in not only her campaign, but her views on the issue.
After her husband — and then President Bill Clinton — signed off on the federal Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, she ran on the common Democratic platform of only supporting civil unions in her 2008 presidential campaign.
It is only after Clinton left her position as Secretary of State that she proclaimed her support for same-sex marriage “personally, and as a matter of policy and law”.
“LGBT Americans are our colleagues, our teachers, our soldiers, our friends, our loved ones… [and they] deserve the rights of citizenship,” she said in March 2013.
Clinton stresses her views have evolved as much from personal reflection as popular opinion.
A June 2015 Pew opinion poll shows 65 per cent of Democrats support same-sex marriage, while only 34 per cent of Republicans support the view.
In 2001, just 43 per cent of Democrats supported the idea.
If successful, Clinton will be the first US presidential candidate to run on the platform of same-sex marriage.
Her announcement also comes on the eve of a historic US Supreme Court decision which could bring same-sex marriage to all US states by June 29.