“It is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” he said.

The statement makes Obama the first U.S. president to openly support gay marriage. The president’s announcement came after his vice president and educational secretary made similar statements.

Obama explained that his position on the matter has evolved over time, just as he feels the American people’s position has. He cited his own daughters, Malia and Sasha, as examples of this changing view.

“It’s interesting, some of this is also generational,” Obama told ABC. “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. It doesn’t make sense to them, and frankly, that’s the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective.”

As previously stated and published by the Church of the Nazarene’s Board of General Superintendents, “We stand firmly on the belief that the biblical concept of marriage, always between one man and one woman in a committed, lifelong relationship, is the only relationship within which the gift of sexual intimacy is properly expressed.”

The board’s full statement on human sexuality reads as follows:

The Church of the Nazarene believes that every man or woman should be treated with dignity, grace, and holy love, whatever their sexual orientation. However, we continue to firmly hold the position that the homosexual lifestyle is sinful and is contrary to the Scriptures.

We further wish to reemphasize our call to Nazarenes around the globe to recommit themselves to a life of holiness, characterized by holy love and expressed through the most rigorous and consistent lifestyle of sexual purity. We stand firmly on the belief that the biblical concept of marriage, always between one man and one woman in a committed, lifelong relationship, is the only relationship within which the gift of sexual intimacy is properly expressed.