Poll: Should Gay Marriage Be Legal?

Gay marriage came to the forefront of the 2012 presidential campaign this week.

President Barack Obama said on ABC's Good Morning America that he personally supported gay marriage.

"You know, Malia and Sasha, they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples. There have been times where Michelle and I have been sitting around the dinner table and we’re talking about their friends and their parents and Malia and Sasha, it wouldn’t dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently," Obama said in the interview with ABC.

Obama's support for gay marriage came one day after North Carolina passed an amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, the Huffington Post Reported.

Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney has said that he does not support gay marriage or civil unions. "My view is the domestic partnership benefits, hospital visitation rights, and the like are appropriate but that the others are not," Romney said to Denver Fox KDVR-TV. Romney has signed a pledge to support a marriage protection amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Politico reported.

In Illinois, Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, said he supported equal marriage rights for homosexuals, the Chicago Tribune reported. Last year Illinois legalized civil unions. The law also recognized .