By Jonathan Allen, CQ Staff

President-elect Barack Obama defended his decision to have pastor Rick Warren give the invocation at his Jan. 20 inauguration in the face of criticism from supporters of gay rights and abortion rights.

Taking questions Thursday morning at a press conference in Chicago, Obama called himself a “fierce advocate” for equal rights for gay men and women.

“What I’ve also said is that it is important for America to come together, even though we may have disagreements on certain social issues,” he said. “And I would note that a couple of years ago, I was invited to Rick Warren’s church to speak, despite his awareness that I held views that were entirely contrary to his when it came to gay and lesbian rights, when it came to issues like abortion.”

The choice of Warren, announced Wednesday, sparked a furious backlash from liberal civil rights groups, who excoriated the famous evangelical pastor from the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif.

“The sad truth is that this decision further elevates someone who has in recent weeks actively promoted legalized discrimination and denigrated the lives and relationships of millions of Americans,” People for the American Way President Kathryn Kolbert said in a statement released Wednesday.

Leaders in the gay and lesbian community took particular issue with Warren’s active backing of California’s Proposition 8, which bans same sex marriage.

“Our loss in California over the passage of Proposition 8 which stripped loving, committed same-sex couples of their given legal right to marry is the greatest loss our community has faced in 40 years,” Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese wrote in an open letter to Obama on Wednesday. “And by inviting Rick Warren to your inauguration, you have tarnished the view that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans have a place at your table,”

“Only when Rev. Warren and others support basic legislative protections for [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] Americans can we believe their claim that they are not four-square against our rights and dignity. In that light, we urge you to reconsider this announcement,” he wrote.

Obama’s own views on the issue are somewhat mixed. In August, he told Warren at a presidential candidates forum that he believes marriage “is the union between a man and a woman,” an answer that Warren cited in his own support of Proposition 8.

But Obama already had made clear that he opposed the California law, which passed by voter referendum on Nov. 4. In June, he called it a “divisive and discriminatory” policy.

On Thursday, Obama sought to put the Warren pick in the context of representing one of many segments of American society at the inauguration.

“During the course of the entire inaugural festivities, there are going to be a wide range of viewpoints that are presented. And that’s how it should be, because that’s what America is about,” Obama said. “That’s part of the magic of this country is that we are diverse and noisy and opinionated.”