schmiggens
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Registered: Apr 2003
Local time: 12:35 PM
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Cheney States Opposition to Gay Marriage Amendment
In surprise comments made at a Davenport, IA, campaign event, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney exressed his hesitation at amending the constitution to ban same-sex marriages.
In the 2000 Vice Presidential Debate, Cheney had stated he felt the issue should be resolved at the state level, putting him at odds with President George W. Bush, who supports the Federal Marriage Amendment. Cheney, who has an openly gay daughter, has remained mostly silent on the issue since Bush began pushing for the amendment.
Cheney told the rally "[M]y general view is that freedom means freedom for everybody. People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to. The question that comes up with respect to the issue of marriage is, what kind of official sanction or approval is going to be granted by government, if you will, to the particular relationship? Historically that's been a relationship that's been handled by the states. States have made the basic fundamental decision what constitutes a marriage. I made clear four years ago when this question came up in my debate with Joe Lieberman that my view was that that's appropriately a matter for the states to decide and that's how it ought to best be handled."
"President Bush must be feeling the heat," said Human Rights Campaign President Cheryl Jacques. "Millions of Republican families, like the Cheneys, have gay friends and family members and are offended by President Bush's efforts to put discrimination in the Constitution. As Vice President Cheney makes clear, this is a personal issue that affects hard-working, tax-paying Americans. The Bush administration can't have it both ways."
Today, the Republican Party also adopted a plank in the party's platform that supports the Federal Marriage Amendment.
"Today the Vice President restated what he so eloquently said in 2000, and what the Vice President said then rings just as true today. The Vice President's comments should be a clear signal to the drafters of our Party's Platform to not include a plank that would call for a Constitutional Amendment," said Patrick Guerriero, Executive Director of Log Cabin Republicans.
Gay and lesbian activists expressed hesitation, however, at the impact of Cheney's comments. "We are heartened that by taking a stand for his daughter, at long last Vice President Cheney is standing up for real family values. His words, however, mean very little unless the Bush/Cheney administration withdraws its aggressive support of the Federal Marriage Amendment, the so-called Marriage Protection Act and numerous other attacks on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families that have been put forward over the last three and a half years," said Matt Foreman, Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
http://www.gayapolis.com
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08-26-2004 06:47 AM
