In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right, a move that then-President Barack Obama called "a victory for America" (via NPR). It was a landmark ruling and Obama's response showed how far he had come, all thanks to his daughters.
As a parent, Obama set the stage for his daughters' outspokenness. While they were growing up, he and Michelle Obama emphasized persistence as well as taking responsibility. "What we try to encourage is the sense that it's not somebody else's job, it's your job," the former president said during a speech at Goalkeepers 2017, per CNBC. "That's an ethic that they've embraced." In an interview with InStyle, he described his daughters: "Sasha is, as Malia describes it, completely confident about her own take on the world and is not cowed or intimidated ... If she thinks something's wrong or right, she will say so. And Malia, she is just buoyant."
While the sisters used the dining room table to create social change with regard to same-sex marriage, as adults, Sasha and Malia got involved in fighting injustice independently of their parents when they protested police brutality in 2020. "They didn't need to be encouraged. Their attitude was — we've seen something wrong and we want to fix it, and we think we can fix it," Obama explained to People. He is proud of his daughters' approach. "Seeing them grow up into the intelligent, strong, and compassionate young women they've become has been the greatest joy of my life," he wrote on Instagram.
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