Romney avoids questions on Obama’s gay-marriage stance

President Obama on Wednesday endorsed gay marriage in an interview with ABC News on Wednesday, but the man who wants his job refused to speculate on whether the president will formally signal support for homosexual couples to wed.

After speaking about energy policy at an oil field in Fort Lupton, Colo., Mitt Romney was asked if he had any comment on the president and gay marriage.

“Not on the rope line,” Romney said, according to The New York Times.

{mosads}Romney also declined to answer questions about the constitutional amendment approved by voters Tuesday in North Carolina that banned same-sex marries and civil unions.

The former Massachusetts governor did, however, discuss same-sex marriage in relation to a proposed Colorado bill during an interview with a local television station, reiterating that he did not support the practice.

“Well, when these issues were raised in my state of Massachusetts, I indicated my view, which is I do not favor marriage between people of the same gender, and I do not favor civil unions if they are identical to marriage other than by name,” Romney told KDVR-TV. “My view is the domestic partnership benefits, hospital visitation rights, and the like are appropriate but that the others are not.”

Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after a state Supreme Court ruling in 2004.

Obama has been under increasing pressure to clarify his position on the subject since Vice President Biden and Education Secretary Arne Duncan both signaled earlier this week that they would be “comfortable” with gay marriages. Those comments ratted up pressure from the White House press corps for the president to clarify his position.

Previously, Obama had said that while he opposed efforts to make same-sex marriages illegal — like the amendment in North Carolina — he did not support the practice, although his view on the topic was “evolving.” The president’s interview with ABC News took place at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.