Kerry's impassioned defense of ... gay marriage

By Domenico Bettinelli, Jr. ( articles - email ) | Aug 16, 2004

Now that John Kerry is running for president, he wants you to think that while he supports "equal protection" for gay and lesbian couples, he’s opposed to gay marriage. His record says otherwise. In fact, John Kerry has previously made statements showing he’s a radical liberal in favor of the whole homosexual activist agenda.

In 1996, Kerry wrote an article for the gay magazine The Advocate in which he called the Defense of Marriage Act “unconstitutional,” “unnecessary,” “mean-spirited,” and “malicious.” Kerry was on record saying that every state in the union should be required to recognize gay marriage if one state’s courts decided it should exist there, as happened in Massachusetts. He likens the fight for gay marriage to the civil rights battle and fights against interracial marriage bans.

Echoing the ignorance and bigotry that peppered the discussion of interracial marriage a generation ago, the proponents of DOMA call for a caste system for marriage. I will not be party to that. As Martin Luther King Jr. explained 30 years ago, “Races do not fall in love and get married. Individuals fall in love and get married.” This is the essence of the American pursuit of happiness and the core of the struggle for equality.

We are then treated to the usual self-referential litany, where Kerry proclaims everything important about himself, boring his audience with the same tired anecdotes of his personal history. “When the Senate debated the outrageous ban on gays in the military, I knew firsthand from my tours of duty in Vietnam the bravery and distinction with which gay soldiers served their country.” Did Kerry serve in Vietnam? Why am I just hearing about this?

In any case, it shows that now that Kerry has a wider audience to please-- an audience that includes a majority of voters who don't want gay marriage--he must adjust his policy position in order to get elected. But gays shouldn't worry too much-- I'm sure he'll flip flop back their way if he gets elected.