Washington ( CNN ) -- Gay rights activist Kevin Cathcart remembers keenly the day President Barack Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage . There sat Obama , who for years had frustrated many in the gay community by not supporting same-sex marriage , telling ABC 's Robin Roberts that conversations with his daughters and friends led him to change his mind . `` When it finished I hit the replay button and I watched it again , '' said Cathcart , executive director of LAMBDA Legal , a gay civil rights organization . `` Then I hit the replay button and watched it again . '' Obama hosted a White House reception Friday in honor of Gay Pride month , an event that brought the president full circle with a community whose support helped launch him into the Oval Office . `` After decades of inaction and indifference , you have every reason and right to push loudly and forcefully for equality , '' Obama said at the event . `` But three years ago I promised you this , I said that even if it took more time that I would like , we would see progress , we would see success , we would see real and lasting change , and together that 's what we 're witnessing . '' It is also a community that , according to a recent CNN analysis of the president 's biggest openly gay `` bundlers , '' or fundraisers , helped add at least $ 8 million to Obama 's campaign coffers between January and the end of March . `` President Obama has the enormous admiration and appreciation of not just gay people , but people who care about gay people : our family , loved ones and friends . He has shown moral leadership and taken tremendous steps to end discrimination against gays , '' said Evan Wolfson , president of Freedom to Marry . The president `` made such a heartfelt and personal description of how he had changed his mind ( on allowing gays to legally marry ) . It 's the very same journey that a majority of Americans have taken . '' According to a recent CNN/ORC International Poll , 54 % of Americans support legalizing marriages between gay and lesbian couples , with 42 % opposed . Sixty percent of Americans also say they have a close friend or family member who is gay . This would seem to suggest good news for Obama , a man who Newsweek magazine recently dubbed America 's `` first gay president . '' Given his opposition to same-sex marriage and the pressure an openly gay staffer faced from conservatives , Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will be hard-pressed to get similar support from the gay and lesbian community . `` My sense is that Romney perceives that not only to secure the nomination but to get the support of the Republican base he needs , he has to take a hard right stand on the issue of same-sex marriage , '' said Craig Rimmerman , professor of public policy and political science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and author of `` From Identity to Politics : The Lesbian and Gay Movements in the United States . '' Romney has not received an endorsement from Log Cabin Republicans , a national gay and lesbian GOP organization . Up until about eight weeks ago , some gay rights activists were feeling similarly tepid about Obama , Cathcart said . As a candidate in the last presidential election , Obama enjoyed rock star status among the gay and lesbian community . High-profile , openly gay figures such as musician Melissa Etheridge and DreamWorks SKG mogul David Geffen joined a grassroots army of supporters at campaign rallies for the Illinois senator . But once in office , President Obama 's efforts at pressing the case for gay rights were more muted , gay rights activists said . Some in the community even felt betrayed . `` The administration has done a great deal , but a lot of it was under the radar and less visible and people were focused on the big things , '' Cathcart said. `` 'Do n't ask , do n't tell ' took a long time and his evolution on marriage took a long time . '' Still , some activists found reason to hope for change . The Obama administration criticized a measure in North Carolina , a swing state , that banned same-sex marriage and made civil unions illegal . The president took the same position on a similar Minnesota proposal . On Friday , when the Pentagon held its first Gay Pride event , Defense Secretary Leon Panetta highlighted the administration 's biggest accomplishment in the gay rights cause : repealing `` do n't ask , do n't tell , '' the military 's ban on openly gay and lesbian members serving in the forces . `` The successful repeal of 'do n't ask , do n't tell ' proved to the nation that just like the country we defend , we share different backgrounds , different values and different beliefs but together we are the greatest military force in the world , '' Panetta said Friday in a video message to troops . The administration 's push to emphasize the White House 's support of gay rights is meant to signal to supporters in that community that the president still stands with them , Rimmerman said . `` My sense is that it is going to firm up his support in the lesbian and gay community , '' Rimmerman said . Obama `` has been quite cautious in how he approaches significant policy changes . He was afraid to take the lead on this issue until he felt it could be politically justified . It suggests to me a degree of caution that 's probably unwarranted given what he promised as a candidate . ''
Obama has boosted his bona fides with gay community . 54 % of Americans support legalizing marriages between gay and lesbian couples . Newsweek dubbed Obama America 's `` first gay president '' on its cover .