Could someone who opposes marriage equality be elected president?

“I’m an optimist by nature. I’ll take a leap of faith and say no. I truly hope that, by 2016, there will be a groundswell of support for marriage equality. It will be strong enough to prevent a marriage-equality opponent from being elected. There will always be anti-LGBT people in the world. But I’m hoping they’ll be outnumbered by LGBT supporters in 2016.”

“Yes, they’d have every opportunity to be elected. So many people are closed-minded. They shun gay people and don’t want them to be married. They’re still in the majority. I’d estimate that 60-70 percent of the public opposes marriage equality. A [presidential] candidate who opposes marriage equality could gain support from conservatives by taking that position.”

“Definitely. I can’t rule out that possibility. There’s too much hate out there. I don’t see it dissipating in a long time. I have an openly gay relative. He goes through an awful lot. Even many governors are against same-sex marriage.”

“Yes. Unfor-tunately, there’s still quite a lot of un-acceptance there. Even in 2016, I think the un-acceptance will be formidable enough that an anti-LGBT bigot could be elected. I fully support LGBT rights. I would hope such a person would never be elected president. But I’m not sure the country is there yet.”