President Barack Obama is urging the Illinois General Assembly to legalize gay marriage in his home state of Illinois according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

“While the president does not weigh in on every measure being considered by state legislatures, he believes in treating everyone fairly and equally, with dignity and respect.

As he has said, his personal view is that it’s wrong to prevent couples who are in loving, committed relationships, and want to marry, from doing so.  Were the President still in the Illinois State Legislature, he would support this measure that would treat all Illinois couples equally.” –  White House spokesman Shin Inouye

While Obama rarely gets involved in statehouse battles, he has voiced support for gay marriage measures in the past year, issuing–through his re-election campaign–statements of support for gay marriage ballot questions up last November in Maine, Maryland and Washington and has “evolved” greatly on the subject.  And while Obama has voiced support for state same-sex marriages as long as DOMA stays on the books in Washington D.C. these marriages are separate and not equal because they are not recognized by the Federal Government.

The Illinois General Assembly is  poised to take up the measure to legalize gay marriage as early as this week in Springfield.