Bush daughter Barbara backs gay marriage

ALBANY - Barbara Bush apparently is a mama's girl when it comes to same-sex marriage.

Bush, daughter of ex-President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush, agrees with her mother that gays and lesbians should be allowed to marry.

"New York is about fairness and equality, and everyone should have the right to marry the person that they love," the younger Bush says in an online video released Monday by the Human Rights Campaign, a gay and lesbian civil rights group pushing for legalization of gay marriage in New York State.

Her father pushed for a constitutional amendment that would have banned gay marriage in the United States.

"The amendment process has addressed many serious matters of national concern," Bush said in 2004. "The preservation of marriage rises to this level of national importance."

The one-time First Lady, however, spoke out in favor of same-sex marrige in 2010.

"I think there are a lot of people who have trouble coming to terms with that because they see marriage as traditionally between a man and a woman," Laura Bush said on CNN's "Larry King Live." "But I also know that when couples are committed to each other and love each other that they ought to have the same sort of rights that everyone has."

Fifty-six percent of Empire State voters favor same-sex nuptials, up from the previous best of 51% in 2009, according to the Quinnipiac University survey. In the city, 55% of voters want gay marriage.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has promised to push for legalizing gay marriage in New York.