Thread: cheny and gay marriage

Vice President Dick Cheney Says He Opposes Same-Sex Marriage Ban
08.25.2004 1:30 PM EDT

Vice President Dick Cheney publicly stated on Tuesday that he opposes President Bush's proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

"Freedom means freedom for everyone," Cheney said at a campaign rally in Davenport, Iowa, according to a transcript released by the White House. "People ought to be able to be free — ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to."

Cheney was asked by an audience member at the rally to speak "from your heart" on the hotly contested issue. "I don't want to know what your advisors say, or even what your top advisor thinks," the questioner said, "but I need to know what do you think about homosexual marriages."

"Lynne and I have a gay daughter, so it's an issue our family is very familiar with," Cheney responded, taking a stance which now jibes with his wife Lynne's view, and distances him from the president's position on gay marriage.

In the 2000 vice-presidential debate, Cheney first came out in support of gay rights when he said he supported leaving the issue of same-sex marriage to the states.

"I made it clear four years ago when I ran and this question came up in the debate I had with Joe Lieberman, that my view was that that's appropriately a matter for the states to decide, that that's how it ought to best be handled," he said at the rally.

Cheney's announcement on Tuesday came as Republicans began debating the party's platform in New York. The public step away from Bush's vehement opposition to same-sex marriage may have been calculated to coincide with the upcoming Republican National Convention, which seeks, among other things, to show a more moderate image of the GOP.

Steven Fisher, a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest advocacy group for gays and lesbians, told USA Today, "President Bush is feeling the heat from swing voters and moderate Republicans who oppose discrimination and who oppose the issue of gay marriage in the Constitution."

Conservative Gary Bauer, who runs a think tank called American Values, told the paper, "My only concern is that in a very close election, his comments could confuse and demoralize voters that President Bush desperately needs."

Though the issue of gay marriage has been historically handled by the states, Cheney said that Bush "felt that he wanted to support the constitutional amendment to define at the federal level ... what constitutes marriage." He also said that the president was concerned that the courts were beginning to change the definition of marriage without people being involved in the process and that the state court in Massachusetts was making the decision for the entire country when, in November 2003, a Supreme Judicial Court ruling made it legal for same-sex couples to wed under the Massachusetts Constitution (see "Same-Sex Couples Marry — Legally — For The First Time In U.S.").

"At this point, my own preference is as I've stated," Cheney concluded. "But the president makes basic policy for the administration. And he's made it clear that he does, in fact, support a constitutional amendment on this issue."
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i've been really busy lately with classes starting back and what not so i have not been able to argue with you all(stickboy)...lol...but this cought my eye and i thought i should share...kinda interesting how cheney is actually thinking logically and not from a religious stand point....

I think all homophobes deserve a gay kid.