President Obama continued his odd tango with the issue of marriage equality Thursday night, as his speech at the annual LGBT Leadership Council Gala contained some pleasant surprises, and at least one thuddingly unpleasant one. Despite Press Secretary Jay Carney‘s warning that he “wouldn’t anticipate” any new “evolution” on the issue, the President issued his most mostly-throated endorsement of marriage equality yet, before disappointingly invoking the right of states to decide this issue.

White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer resurrected a longstanding controversy Friday when he said that President Obama had not personally filled out a 1996 questionnaire that indicated support for gay marriage. At today’s White House briefing, The Washington Blade‘s Christopher Johnson was finally able to get confirmation that the President did, indeed, fill out the questionnaire. Despite Jay Carney‘s protests to the contrary, the White House has not been at all forthcoming in answering that question.

President Obama has some impressive policy accomplishments when it comes to gay rights, but even though he has presided over the repeal of “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” has consistently supported a repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, and instructed his Justice Department not to defend the law in court, President Obama still has not said that he believes in the right of gay couples to marry. At Tuesday’s White House briefing, I asked Press Secretary Jay Carney why that is.

At Monday’s White House briefing, The Blade‘s Chris Johnson asked Gibbs about a 1996 questionnaire that indicated Obama’s support for same-sex marriage, and I followed up by asking if the President was any closer to revealing his “evolved” personal beliefs on the subject. Gibbs pointed to previous remarks by the President, and said it’s an issue that he “thinks a lot about,” but there are no immediate plans for him to address the issue.

At Tuesday’s White House briefing, Robert Gibbs fielded several questions about the status of the repeal of DOMA (The Defense of Marriage Act), which he said, “given the current makeup of the Congress,” would be “inordinately challenging.”

Given President Obama’s recent remarks about his “evolving” opinion on same-sex marriage, and the fact that he used last year’s State of the Union address to promise the repeal of DADT, I asked Gibbs if the President might address the DOMA repeal, and his personal views on gay marriage, at this year’s SOTU.