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Against Gay Civil Rights Pandering to Religious Fanatics He Gears Up for 2004 Election ACLU Scornful of GOP's Lip Service to Limited Government
At his Rose Garden news conference on Wednesday morning, the President said: "I believe in the sanctity of marriage. I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. And I think we ought to codify that one way or another." On Thursday, major news organizations gave immediate focus to the marriage debate. CNN's Paul Begala, speaking on Crossfire, stepped into the midst of the controversy. "Tell me why Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani can get married three times," he asked, "and a gay person can't get married once?" That same evening, ABC's World News Tonight featured a male couple, Dominic Pisciotta and Andrew Berg, who provided support for the concept of civil marriage rights. Both Pisciotta and Berg have been advocating for marriage equality for several years and traveled in 2001 to Vermont to formalize their relationship. At the same time, right wing activists are rallying behind a constitutional amendment being pushed currently in Congress by Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania) who got in trouble earlier this year for equating homosexuality with incest and bestiality. The White House has, to date, declined to endorse a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to heterosexual arrangements and the ACLU, although dismayed that the President wants to shut the door to states that want to recognize same-sex families, urged him to continue to reject any constitutional change. The proposed amendment, the ACLU said, would undermine state domestic partnerships, adoption, foster care and kinship care laws. Significantly, the amendment also would not hurt just gays and lesbians. It would deprive all unmarried couples of all legal protections for their relationships by overriding any federal or state constitutional protections and federal, state and local laws. In many states, unmarried persons -- including unmarried relatives, heterosexual couples, and even unrelated clergy members -- have the same rights as married persons to jointly adopt or provide foster care or kinship care. The proposed amendment would also take the extremely rare - and inevitably disastrous - step of changing the Constitution to restrict rights, a purpose that the founders never intended. The last time the Constitution was changed to constrain Americans' liberties - with the 18th Amendment and Prohibition - the move was an unqualified failure that had to be repealed. The President's remarks also come on the heels of the Lawrence v. Texas Supreme Court decision striking down state anti-sodomy laws, which was based on a strong affirmation of a basic right to privacy in the United States. "The President's stance belies any prior lip-service to limited government or the traditional Republican values of individual rights and personal dignity," Anders said. "This is the government in our bedrooms and interfering with our families all over again." |
Bush prepares for re-election and appears to be targeting the gay community in his campaign