Image Text:

COVER: Newsweek dubs Obama 'first gay President' - Controversial issue follows US President's backing of same-sex marriage

US MAGAZINE Newsweek have dubbed Barack Obama the 'first gay President' on the front cover of the publication.

The controversial headline, which has an image of Obama depicted as an angel sporting a rainbow coloured halo, comes after he announced to the world last week that he believes same-sex marriages should be legal in the states.

Journalist and political writer behind the piece, Andrew Sullivan, claimed that the President had brought him to tears with his support for the gay community.

He wrote: “I do not know how orchestrated this was; and I do not know how calculated it is. What I know is that, absorbing the news, I was uncharacteristically at a loss for words for a while, didn’t know what to write, and, like many Dish readers, there are tears in my eyes."

“So let me simply say: I think of all the gay kids out there who now know they have their president on their side. I think of Maurice Sendak, who just died, whose decades-long relationship was never given the respect it deserved," he added.

In his announcement on same sex unions Obama told Good Morning America: “I’ve always been adamant that gay and lesbian Americans should be treated fairly and equally."

"I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and neighbours, when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or Marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained," he added.

He continued: "Even now that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.”