Jimmy Carter: US Ready to Elect Gay President

Former President Jimmy Carter says U.S. voters have reached the point where they would be willing to elect a gay president “in the near future.”

Carter made his remarks on the Big Think website, which bills itself as an “online knowledge forum.” The site offers over 1,500 interviews with prominent experts in a variety of fields.

“I think the entire population of America has come tremendous strides forward in dealing with the issue of gays,” Carter said in the video. He also compared the emergence of gay-rights concerns with the rise of the Civil Rights movement some 50 years ago.

“Step by step we have realized that this issue of homosexuality has the same adverse and progressive elements as when we dealt with the race issue 50 years ago,” he said.

Asked if he foresees a day when voters would elect a gay person to be commander in chief, Carter replied: “I would say the answer is yes. I don’t know about next election, but I think in the near future.”

He also cited President Obama’s election as an example of the evolving mindset of American voters.

“So I would say the country is getting acclimated to a president who might be female, who might obviously now be black, and who might be a gay person,” Carter told the site. “So I would say the answer is yes.”