After legalizing same-sex marriage, the white house was illuminated in rainbow colours

The White House is lighted in seven rainbow hues on June 26, 2015, the evening of the Supreme Court's decision on same-sex marriage. Obama was the first US president to make same-sex marriage legal, making him the first of many.

In 1996, when Obama ran for the Illinois state senate, he endorsed the legalization of same-sex unions. He declared his support for same-sex domestic partnerships and civil unions during his 2004 Senate campaign, but he was against same-sex marriage. He reiterated this viewpoint in 2008 when he said, "I think a marriage should only be between a man and a woman. I'm not in favor of same-sex unions."

On May 9, 2012, not long after officially beginning his reelection campaign for president, Obama declared that his opinions had changed and he had come to embrace the union personally. become the first sitting US president to allow same-sex unions. Obama requested in his second inaugural speech on January 21, 2013, making him the first US president in office to do so. the first president to mention gay rights or the word "gay" in an inaugural address, and he also advocated for full equality for gay Americans.

After winning a second and final term in office in late 2012, Obama declared that his prior position had changed and that he now fully backed same-sex marriage. In the cases of Hollingsworth v. Perry (concerning same-sex marriage) and United States v. Windsor, the Obama administration submitted filings pleading with the Supreme Court to find in favor of same-sex couples in both of those instances (regarding the Marriage Protection Act).