(Photo: Newsweek)

President Obama has been named the “first gay president” on the cover of the just released Newsweek issue, which features the president with a rainbow halo over his head. The cover comes a week after the president publicly supported the legalization of same-sex marriage. In the cover story, Andrew Sullivan, who is gay, says that as the offspring of a white American woman and an African man Obama grew up understanding what it’s like to be different.

Sullivan wrote:

“I have always sensed that he intuitively understands gays and our predicament — because it so mirrors his own. And he knows how the love and sacrifice of marriage can heal, integrate, and rebuild a soul. The point of the gay-rights movement, after all, is not about helping people be gay. It is about creating the space for people to be themselves. This has been Obama's life's work.”

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