Here's an editorial from the Washington Blade and its sister publications endorsing Wesley Clark. What's interesting is the clear-headed look at the other Democratic contenders on gay issues. As Bush moves closer his party's religious right base (a big mistake, but one the administration increasingly appears committed to), it's worth noting that Democratic candidates past and present have not been held to a very high standard by their gay supporters. A few quotes from the editorial:
John Edwards" has failed to embrace civil unions for same-sex couples. -- When Dean said he intended to push the debate in the South beyond "guns, God and gays," Edwards faulted the New Englander for ducking a "values" debate important to his region. "
Among gay audiences, [John] Kerry points out that he was the only senator up for reelection in 1996 to vote against the politically popular Defense of Marriage Act. But his GOP opponent that year was Gov. Bill Weld, whose record on gay issues was far more supportive than Kerry's. Asked this week to defend his DOMA vote after President Bush vowed support for a constitutional ban on gay marriage, Kerry told ABC News, "I have the same position as the president," even though Kerry has said he is actually opposed to such an amendment.
Earlier this year, Kerry cited procreation as the primary reason marriage should be reserved for heterosexuals, even though his own marriage to heiress Teresa Heinz is childless.
During his tenure in the Senate, Kerry has also cast some questionable, and downright insulting votes, including a prohibition on immigration for people who are HIV-positive, a federal crime (with jail time) for HIV-positive healthcare providers who fail to disclose their status, and -- most upsetting -- a "no promo homo" measure that barred the use of federal funds in schools to "promote homosexuality. ""
Kerry, a decorated Vietnam vet, says he supports a full repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," but as recently as the 2000 Democratic primary he took Gore and Bradley to task publicly for the same position. At the time, Kerry said rather bizarrely that allowing gays to serve openly was "a bad idea" because commanders needed the discretion to remove gays from particular units if they endangered unit cohesion. ...
[After] Vermont's highest court had ordered the governor and legislature to adopt full marriage or its equivalent, [Howard Dean rejected] gay activists who argued (then and now) that anything other than marriage is inherently unequal. In Massachusetts today, where that same debate is repeating itself, activists are labeling the Dean position, now favored by the Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, as anti-gay.
The Blade also has a separate article looking at Dean's mixed messages.
The point is certainly not that Bush is better than the Democratic contenders on gay matters; obviously, he's not. If you're a single-issue voter, you're going to vote for the Democrat, whoever he is. But I react strongly to much of the pious nonsense that some Democratic activists are serving up about their candidates. Last time, they gave a free pass to Bill Clinton -- the first U.S. president to sign anti-gay legislation into federal law with both "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the Defense of Marriage Act (and who then trumpeted his support for DOMA with radio ads in the South during his reelection campaign).
So please, spare me the "Democrats Good, Republicans Bad"
e-mails and at least contemplate that both parties have their own
unappealing shadow sides to be weighed in the balance.
More Recent Postings