Colin Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State under President George W. Bush, said on Wednesday (23 May) that he believes same-sex marriage should be legal in the United States.

'I have no problem with it,' Powell said in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. 'In terms of the legal matter of creating a contract between two people that's called marriage, and allowing them to live together with the protection of law, it seems to me is the way we should be moving in this country.'