Colin Powell: Same sex couples should be allowed to marry

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday that he had "no problem" with President Barack Obama's recent endorsement of same sex marriage.

"I have no problem with it," he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "And it was the Congress that imposed 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' It was certainly my position, and my recommendation, to get out us of an even worse outcome that could have occurred, if you'll recall."

As the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1993, Powell had opposed allowing gay men and lesbian women to serve openly in the military. But in 2010 he announced that he supported the repeal of the military policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

"But, as I've thought about gay marriage, I know a lot of friends who are individually gay but are in partnerships with loved ones," Powell added.

"And they are stable a family as my family is. And they raise children. And so I don't see any reason not to say that they should be able to get married under the laws of their state or the laws of the country, however that turns out, it seems to be the laws of the state."

Watch video, courtesy of CNN, below: