Senator Edward Kennedy: A Rerd of Learship on Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr and HIV Issu - Human Rights Campaign

Contents:

• TED KENNEDY, B LAN & GAY MARRIAGE: HOW OBAMA GOT HIS AUDACY BACK
• KENNEDY: THE GAY MARRIAGE JTICE
• SENATOR EDWARD KENNEDY: A RERD OF LEARSHIP ON LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENR AND HIV ISSU
• TED KENNEDY, LOST BOYS AND GAY MARRIAGE
• CAROLE KENNEDY SUPPORTS GAY MARRIAGE IN FIRST POLIL QUTNNAIRE
• TED KENNEDY ALSO REMEMBERED AS CHAMPN FOR GAY RIGHTS
• THIS IS HOW PROUD ROMNEY WAS TO BE PRO-GAY RIGHTS 1994
• KENNEDY WILL CI GAY MARRIAGE S, BUT HOW?
• LEADG REPUBLINS SEND A VALENTE TO JTICE KENNEDY ON GAY MARRIAGE
• ROMNEY’S MIXED VIEWS ON GAY RIGHTS AND MARRIAGE RILE CONSERVATIV

TED KENNEDY, B LAN & GAY MARRIAGE: HOW OBAMA GOT HIS AUDACY BACK

Our e was lg up the vot to feat an anti-gay nstutnal amendment that would strip same-sex upl of the right to marry. “You’ll never gus who left me a msage about gay marriage, ” he said.

He jt me out and said what was wrten his ndidate’s qutnnaire the 1990s at no polil risk: he is favor of gay seemed like he might be the guy people voted for after Ted K. Anthony Kennedy on Friday enshred his legacy as the gay marriage jtice. Kennedy was the thor of both opns, both s makg the se for gay rights sweepg, emotnal terms.

“Jtice Kennedy” beme a top trendg topic on Twter right after the lg was announced, wh gay rights supporters across the untry celebratg his role the lg. The plds om supporters of gay marriage is an unlikely twist the judicial reer of Kennedy, an appotee of former Print Reagan who has long played the role of iologil wild rd on the urt. The road to Friday’s lg legalizg gay marriage was paved by the DOMA cisn, which found that the feral ernment uld not refe to regnize gay marriag allowed by the stat.

KENNEDY: THE GAY MARRIAGE JTICE

In the end, he not only voted wh the urt’s liberal wg to abolish DOMA but wrote an opn that ma the se for gay rights moral terms. Jtice Anton Slia warned Kennedy’s lg was so broad spe that gay marriage bans would fall across the untry.

That warng proved prophetic, as the DOMA cisn set off a cha reactn of lower urt lgs that abolished gay marriage bans across the untry. It was those lgs that led to Friday’s landmark cisn, wh stat appealg to the hight urt the land for permissn to rtore the gay marriage bans put place by voters.

The fact that stat have allowed gays and lbians to adopt children, eher as dividuals or as upl, he said, is powerful proof that gays and lbians n create stable fai. If and when those s arise, uld aga fall to Kennedy to ci how far the natn should go fense of gay rights.

SENATOR EDWARD KENNEDY: A RERD OF LEARSHIP ON LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENR AND HIV ISSU

Do you support the right of gay and lbian upl to marry? Do you thk ’s appropriate that Rick Warren, who mpaigned to ban gay marriage, is liverg the votn at Obama’s guratn? ANSWER: “Carole supports full equaly and marriage rights for gay and lbian upl.

TED KENNEDY, LOST BOYS AND GAY MARRIAGE

I'm also hopeful that many of our Republin lleagu - those wh whom we've worked over the years on a bipartisan basis to expand and fend the civil rights of gay and straight Amerins alike - will jo rejectg this divisive effort.

" (Statement on the Feral Marriage Amendment, 2004)The Human Rights Campaign is Ameri's largt civil rights anizatn workg to achieve lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr equaly.

Bill on behalf of - We rtate our support for civil unns (and leave the door open to possible support for gay marriage) but spell out what uld be some untend nsequenc of last week's lg by the California Supreme Court strikg down a ban on gay marriage. (Froma Harrop) Wrg off the California gay marriage cisn: Keep marriage as a romantic and relig ial for those who choose to partake rather than a fancial gravy tra. Ted Kennedy Also Remembered As Champn For Gay Rights Sen.

CAROLE KENNEDY SUPPORTS GAY MARRIAGE IN FIRST POLIL QUTNNAIRE

Edward Kennedy is beg remembered for his passnate embrace of civil rights , which also clus fightg for the rights of gays and lbians. The late Senator had a strong rerd phg for legislatn on behalf of the Lbian Gay Bisexual and Transgenr (LGBT) muny.

Joe Solmone, of the Human Rights Campaign, one of the untry's largt gay rights anizatns, offers more on Kennedy's activism on behalf of the LGBT muny. Ted Kennedy Also Remembered As Champn For Gay Rights. But first, the late Senator Edward Kennedy is remembered for his passnate embrace of civil rights cludg the rights of gays and lbians.

Wh now is Joe Solmone, print of Human Rights Campaign, one of the untry's largt gay-rights anizatns. LUDDEN: First, why do you thk Senator Kennedy red so eply about gay rights?

TED KENNEDY ALSO REMEMBERED AS CHAMPN FOR GAY RIGHTS

Here is someone who had no gay children and no gay fay members, but clearly saw that as a part of his mment to public service and his service to the untry. It was moved through Congrs at a time when there was a great al of stigma attached to the disease, a disease that, at the time, was almost exclively impactg gay men.

THIS IS HOW PROUD ROMNEY WAS TO BE PRO-GAY RIGHTS 1994

LUDDEN: I'm cur if he ever paid a polil price for his support for gay rights. The newt gay rights in wears a drab black robe and got his job om Ronald Reagan. Perhaps no Amerin polil figure has been more nsequential gay and lbian Amerins’ fight for equaly than Supreme Court Jtice Anthony M.

KENNEDY WILL CI GAY MARRIAGE S, BUT HOW?

Kennedy, the thor of Friday’s majory lg that sentially legalized gay marriage around the Uned Stat. “It’s impossible to overstate his importance” to the gay rights movement, said Cala Taylor, unsel and director of Lambda Legal’s marriage project. Kennedy’s first stand for gay rights me 1996, when he thored a 6-3 cisn emg unnstutnal a Colorado referendum that allowed discrimatn agast lbians, gays and bisexuals.

It was a signifint precursor to Friday’s opn, bee ced the 14 th Amendment’s equal-protectn clse as a source of gay rights. The gay marriage lg, known as Obergefell v. Taylor said Kennedy’s history on gay rights aligns wh the untry’s broar evolutn on those issu.

LEADG REPUBLINS SEND A VALENTE TO JTICE KENNEDY ON GAY MARRIAGE

But Taylor add that Kennedy’s “rpectful acknowledgment” of gay peopl’ humany “has talyzed the movement. Mt Romney earned huge cheers at a nservative nference Febary when he bragged, "On my watch, we fought hard and prevented Massachetts om beg the Las Vegas of gay marriage. " But 1994, nng for Senate agast Ted Kennedy, he told a lol gay and lbian paper he was even more pro-gay rights than article is om the archive of our partner Romney earned huge cheers at a nservative nference Febary when he bragged, "On my watch, we fought hard and prevented Massachetts om beg the Las Vegas of gay marriage.

" But 1994, nng for Senate agast Ted Kennedy, he told a lol gay and lbian paper he was even more pro-gay rights than Kennedy. But the reason he had to shift his posn on gay rights rightward 2012 is that he'd had to shift leftward 1994.

Durg that mpaign, members of Romney's ngregatn had told the prs that he'd lled gays and lbians "perverse" a speech the prev year. "I thk the gay muny needs more support om the Republin Party and I would be a voice the Republin Party to foster antidiscrimatn efforts, " he told Bay Wdows, a New England gay and lbian newspaper. He also wrote a letter to Log Cab Republins sayg he'd make "equaly for gays and lbians a mastream ncern.

ROMNEY’S MIXED VIEWS ON GAY RIGHTS AND MARRIAGE RILE CONSERVATIV

Vice Print Joe Bin really did get ahead of Print Barack Obama on acceptg gay marriage 2012 — and the Whe Hoe really wasn’t happy about , spe the two lears’ many attempts to claim otherwise. That’s the story laid out Jo Becker’s new book, “Forcg the Sprg, ” which documents the past few years of succsful efforts to expand the legalizatn of gay marriage, acrdg to an advance py obtaed by POLITICO. Becker scrib the months leadg up to that shed moment as a scramble to weigh the polil dangers of backg gay marriage agast the expected ph to add marriage equaly to the Democratic nventn platform.

And Becker says Obama senr adviser David Plouffe reached out to an unexpected ally: former Republin Natnal Commtee chairman Ken Mehlman, who me out as gay himself 2010.

In a private lunch at the Whe Hoe, Mehlman advised Obama that backg gay marriage uld reassert his character strength om 2008, appealg to young people, Republins and pennts and beyond by seemg to take a bold stand whout regard to the polil nsequenc. “I thk you may have jt gotten ont of the print on gay marriage, ” his munitns director, Shailagh Murray, told him on the r ri back om the stud.

That, followed by Edutn Secretary Arne Dunn sayg when asked a “Morng Joe” terview that he also backed gay marriage, ma the Whe Hoe realize was gog to get ught an quisn that wouldn’t stop until the print went public.

He did the terview, hedgg enough to say he was “probably” gog to e out for gay marriage before the electn anyway.

( PHOTOS: Pols who evolved on gay marriage). WASHINGTON (CNN) -- For wrer John Aravosis, Edward "Ted" Kennedy's early support for gay rights was very important to a muny that has faced a history steeped discrimatn.