Leadg Democratic printial ndidate Sen. John Kerry outl his stance on gay marriage and answers allegatns of special-tert nnectns. Kerry is mpaigng Virgia and Tennsee preparatn for Tuday's primari. NPR's Melissa Block talks wh Sen. Kerry.
Contents:
- KERRY’S POSNS ON GAY MARRIAGE
- HOW GAY MARRIAGE BEME A CONSTUTNAL RIGHT
- THE TIME BILL CLTON TOLD JOHN KERRY TO SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE BANS
- GAY MARRIAGE ISN’T WHAT BEAT KERRY
- JOHN KERRY—BH AND I HAVE THE 'SAME POSN' ON GAY MARRIAGE
- THE 2004 CAMPAIGN: SAME-SEX MARRIAGE; URGED BY RIGHT, BH TAK ON GAY MARRIAG
- KERRY CONONTS GAY MARRIAGE, FUNDS ISSU
KERRY’S POSNS ON GAY MARRIAGE
Printial ndidate John Kerry, who is agast same-sex marriage, two years ago urged Massachetts lawmakers not to adopt a nstutnal amendment banng gay marriage. * john kerry gay marriage *
Democratic printial hopeful John Kerry, who oppos gay marriage and hts he might support a limed ban, jt two years ago signed a letter wh other ngrsnal lleagu urgg the Massachetts Legislature to drop a nstutnal amendment outlawg homosexual when Kerry opposed feral legislatn 1996 that fed marriage as a unn between a man and a woman, he pared the law to 1960s efforts the South to crimalize terracial marriag and acced his supporters of engagg the “polics of divisn. ”“This is an unnstutnal, unprecented, unnecsary and mean-spired bill, ” Kerry clared then, even as 85 senators and Print Clton supported the his home state grappl wh a historic Massachetts Supreme Court lg that uld perm homosexual marriag, Kerry’s own ments on the mpaign trail are beg pared by Republins, Democratic rivals and even his own nstuents to his prr ’s mpaign said Wednday he has nsistently opposed gay marriage while also rejectg legislatn, like the 2002 amendment, that he believed jeopardized the civil rights and regnn of gay relatnships bee was too broadly word. He opposed a proposed nstutnal amendment Massachetts the summer of 2002 bee a sweepg proposal would have threatened civil unns, health benefs, or herance rights for gay upl that reprent equal protectn unr the law, ” spokman David Wa said.
It’s that simple, ” he emergence of gay marriage as an issue has placed several ndidat — cludg Howard Dean who signed a civil-unns bill durg his Vermont ernorship — a lite balancg act of tryg to avoid lookg bigoted while platg heterosexual and relig Whe Hoe refed Wednday to m Print Bh to supportg a nstutnal amendment to ban gay marriag, although nservative lears said they have received high-level assuranc he will take the step. ”Possible support for Massachetts banKerry has left open the possibily he uld support a Massachetts ban on gay marriage if regnized civil unns and other protectns as an alternative.
HOW GAY MARRIAGE BEME A CONSTUTNAL RIGHT
The law clus a 10-year prison sentence for participatg gay social associatns. * john kerry gay marriage *
But 2002, he joed his ngrsnal lleagu opposg Massachetts’ last effort to outlaw gay marriage, sayg they feared uld be ed to prevent muni “om actg as they might wish to provi some form of regnn for same sex relatnships.
”“We believe would be a grave error for Massachetts to enshre our Constutn a provisn which would have such a negative effect on so many of our fellow rints, ” Kerry and 11 other members of the state’s ngrsnal legatn Legislature’s 2002 effort failed, but that bate renewed the last week after the Massachetts Supreme Court led gays were entled to the same marriage as heterosexuals unls the state nstutn is changed. Edward Kennedy said Wednday he didn’t ask Kerry or Kennedy to sign this time “bee I was such a hurry, ” the openly gay ngrsman said Kerry has always been clear to him that he oppos gay marriage but wants homosexuals to have equal protectn unr the law through civil unns, and other has said that he believ marriage — both legally and religly — should be rerved between a man and woman.
I oppose gay marriage and disagree wh the Massachetts urt’s cisn, ” Kerry said last asked whether he might support Massachetts’ nstutnal amendment, he said was possible. “It is hard to believe that this bill is anythg other than a thly veiled attempt to sre polil batg pots by spegoatg gay and lbian Amerins, ” he add, while notg his own personal objectns to gay marriage. Kerry’s evolutn remov him om what had been a tricky polil spot: a liberal senator reprentg the first state to legalize gay marriage whout beg for them himself.
THE TIME BILL CLTON TOLD JOHN KERRY TO SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE BANS
Pr Bh, unr prsure om nservativ, lat his support for nstutnal amendment banng gay marriage, movg issue to foreont of printial mpaign and unrsrg what his ais say is cril difference between him and Sen John Kerry; Bh champns amendment his weekly rad addrs, and Senate Republins say they will seek to force vote on on July 14; Kerry and his nng mate Sen John Edwards, on the mpaign trail, say they would return to Washgton to vote agast amendment, even though appears unlikely their vot will be need to feat ; Kerry and Edwards say they oppose gay marriage but that matter should be left to stat; ais say two will argue that Bh is tryg to subvert Constutn for polil ends; Whe Hoe appears to be stgglg to rencile nflictg prsure om nservativ eager for Bh to champn ban and some Republins ncerned that issue uld alienate uncid morate voters; nservativ pla to Whe Hoe that mpaign is blockg opponents of gay marriage om prime-time speakg slots at Republin Natnal Conventn; photos (M) * john kerry gay marriage *
Kerry told the Globe that sce Massachetts legalized gay marriag, his Catholic church-fed fears that same-sex marriage would e damage turned out to be unfound. In 1971, she noted, sodomy was a crime nearly every state, gays were routely persecuted and barred om public and private employment, and homosexualy was classified as a mental illns.
By now, has bee a polil cliché to wonr at how quickly public opn has changed on gay marriage recent years—support for “marriag between homosexuals, ” measured at 60 percent this year, was jt 27 percent when Gallup first asked the qutn 1996. Today, when many Amerins thk of gay people, they may thk of that nice uple the next apartment, or the fay the next pew at church, or their fellow parents the PTA.
GAY MARRIAGE ISN’T WHAT BEAT KERRY
They appealed va to Natnal Gay Rights Advot (now funct), the Lbian Rights Project (now the Natnal Center for Lbian Rights), the Amerin Civil Liberti Unn, and Lambda Legal, where a young lawyer named Evan Wolfson wanted to take the se—but his boss, who were opposed to pursug gay marriage, wouldn’t let him.
JOHN KERRY—BH AND I HAVE THE 'SAME POSN' ON GAY MARRIAGE
The cisn, he wrote, was “nothg ls than a tectonic shift, a fundamental realignment of the landspe, possibly the biggt lbian and gay rights legal victory ever. Wolfson always believed that only the urt uld legalize gay marriage: Regardls of public opn, he firmly believed the Constutn required , and jurists would eventually have to regnize that fact. Wolfson cid some batn of the two measur—state-level ws and public support—would be necsary to get the Supreme Court to weigh on gay Baehr and Dancel, the backlash was paful.
In 2004, the movement sred another major victory when a lg the Massachetts supreme urt, on a se brought by Bonto, ma the first state to allow gays to marry.
For every step forward for gay marriage, there seemed to be many more steps Baehr and Dancel talked, they slipped to the old, easy timacy of long-ago ex-lovers. The same clerk who refed to give them a marriage license, Irene Takeda, was still on duty to give Dancel a legal marriage license when Hawaii legalized gay marriage and Dancel married Kathryn Dennis November we talked, I noticed some faiar fac havg dner at the next table.
THE 2004 CAMPAIGN: SAME-SEX MARRIAGE; URGED BY RIGHT, BH TAK ON GAY MARRIAG
Washgton n be a small town sometim; was Print Obama’s senr adviser, Valerie Jarrett, along wh Kathleen Sebeli, the former secretary of health and human servic, and Ja Napolano, the former secretary of homeland secury—three top members of the admistratn of a Democratic print who had n 2008 as an opponent of gay marriage, and aga 2012 as a newly nverted supporter.
”On a sunny day April, Wolfson sat the backseat of a taxi Knoxville, Tennsee, preparg to speak about gay marriage—his life’s project— an dorium at the Universy of Tennsee law school. When Wolfson was a law stunt at Harvard 1983, his adviser tried to disurage him om wrg his this on gay marriage, on the grounds that was too far-fetched. At the regular meetgs of a roundtable of gay-rights ligators, many argued that the movement, wh s limed rourc, uld achieve more succs by focg on more achievable goals, like health re for AIDS patients or stoppg hog discrimatn.
At the age of 21, servg as a Peace Corps volunteer Togo, he experienced a sexual awakeng; soon after, he read John Boswell’s landmark 1981 history of gayns, Christiany, Social Tolerance, and Homosexualy, which scribed a Wtern world that had been far more acceptg of gays through the Middle Ag. Wolfson appealed to the group’s board, which restated him, said Richard Soris, a board member at the time, who would go on to advise Print Clton on gay issu.
KERRY CONONTS GAY MARRIAGE, FUNDS ISSU
(The Supreme Court se, named for the Oh platiff Jim Obergefell, a Ccnati man who sued to be listed on his late hband’s ath certifite, was an amalgam of gay-marriage appeals om Oh, Tennsee, Michigan, and Kentucky. At one pot, a man asked about the recent Relig Freedom Rtoratn Act proposed Indiana, which provoked a natnal ntroversy over claims would give bs license to discrimate agast gays.