Cuomo says he “applauds the President’s courage” and believes that Mr. Obama’s support will “boost” efforts to advance marriage equality in many state where it is to legal, or where efforts are underway to ban gay marriage. And Cuomo believes it will help change minds, saying people will think “if he can revisit an issue, then so can I.”
 
The governor says it’s important that the President made clear that he considers gay marriage a civil issue, not a religious matter, something that was delineated in the New York law. Cuomo met with President Obama briefly before the President’s appearance at Albany’s nanoscience center on Tuesday, but he says the subject of legalizing same sex marriage did not come up.