Jimmy Carter believes U.S. is ready for a gay president 'in the near future'

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:58 AM on 17th December 2010

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter believes America is ready for a gay president 'in the near future'

Former President Jimmy Carter believes the U.S. is ready to elect a gay president 'in the near future.'

'I think the entire population has come tremendous strides forward in dealing with the issue of gays,' Carter said in an interview with the website Big Think.

'I don't know about the next election, but I think in the near future, because 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.'

Carter served one term as commander-in-chief and then lost his bid for re-election to Ronald Reagan in 1980.

He went on, 'I would say that the country is getting acclimated to a president who might be female, who might, obviously, now, be black, and who might be as well a gay person.'

President Obama is the first black president.

Former Bill Clinton adviser and interviewer James Carville then wondered, 'How do we know we haven't had one?'

America has had one bachelor president, James Buchanan, from 1857-61.