Massachusetts Senator is Misquoted as Anti-Gay  Senator’s Communications Director Replies to Error   Compiled by Badpuppy’s GayToday From Rex Wockner’s International Report

Senator John Kerry

Al Elsner, Reuters’ political correspondent,  mistakenly said of the Senator that his view of family values was not supportive of same-sex families.  He wrote that Kerry showed “little patience for those who advocate teaching about non-traditional families or homosexual or lesbian marriages.” 

Kerry was quoted: "They are not parents by definition. They are parents by law but they're not parents by biology,'' 

Reuters also said that Kerry believes that  “The battle in America right now is not over the non-traditional family. The battle in America right now is over whether or not we can even save the traditional family. And that we ought to be able to agree on...” 

Following the Reuters misquotes, Jim Jones, Director of Communications to Senator Kerry, immediately fired off a letter to Rex Wockner, GayToday’s International News correspondent.  He said:  

“Alan Elsner, the reporter who filed a recent Reuters wire story about Senator Kerry, got many things wrong in his story, but possible none more inflammatory than the misquote regarding gay people being parents. John Kerry is the only Senator up for re-election in 1996 who voted against the Defense of Marriage Act. For this, Time magazine gave him its "honest man in politics" award. His stance on gay civil rights in all its guises is unequivocal and his voting record underscores this: he supports non-discrimination against gay men and lesbians in the work place, opposes marriage restrictions on gay people, and supports gay people being foster parents. 

I sat in on that interview from which the story was written. John Kerry never said that gay people cannot or should not be parents -- the quotation in the story was taken wholly out of context. (Trust me, if he had intimated it, I would have clearly spoken up.) I even spoke to the reporter after the interview to make sure he understood the context of the Senator's comments.  

The Senator obviously understands that women -- gay or straight – are able to bear children. He has personal friends who are gay parents. He draws no distinction -- as the reporter would have you believe -- between people who are parents "by law" and "by biology."  

The interview was supposed to focus on his legislation on early childhood development and the crisis of neglect of child in this country. It frankly amazed him when he read that somehow the reporter misconstrued it into a discussion of gay parenting or the "advocacy of non-traditional families" (whatever that means).  

The Senator deeply regrets any misunderstanding which might arise from this erroneous story. He has not and will not change his position that gay people in this country deserve all the rights that are afforded to every American.  

He hopes that all supporters of gay civil rights judge him by his votes and his deeds and not spurious comments attributed to him.  

This type of sensationalism surrounding issues important to gay people is exactly what he is fighting against, and it strikes him as especially ironic that this report appears on the very day that he succeeded in convincing the Republicans on the Small Business Committee (on which he serves as Ranking Democrat) to hold a hearing on Fred Hochberg's nomination. It looks as if Mr. Hochberg will sail through the process, making him one of the top openly gay officials in the Administration.  I hope this helps to clarify this issue  

Best regards. 

Jim Jones, Senator Kerry’s Communications Director