eva young
Eva Young is President of Log Cabin Republicans of Minnesota and lives in Minneapolis with her cat, Kiddleleewink. You can also read her other blog here.
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September 17, 2004

Lisa Keene did a great job interviewing here:

BTL: ...including DOMA and the Federal Marriage Amendment. You voted against the Defense of Marriage Act and you've spoken out against the Federal Marriage Amendment. In both cases you described it as "gay bashing for political gain." Many of us feel that the constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage in Massachusetts and Missouri also constitute gay bashing for political gain. I'm curious why you haven't spoken out against those two?

Sen. Kerry: Well, I think there's a distinction. I don't think that's gay bashing. It's, obviously, a position that people in the GLBT community disagree with - I understand that. But I think that, historically, the definition of marriage and the application of marriage laws has always been state defined. It is up to the states, not the federal government. That's why I viewed the federal efforts, as specifically targeted, as gay bashing, because they were usurping into a territory that they didn't belong. There was no need to do that. Under the constitution, no state has to recognize another state's decision, and it's up to the states. [Note: Under the constitution, states must give "full faith and credit" to the "public acts, records, and judicial proceedings and acts of all other states." Constitutional law Professor Chai Feldblum says, "the Supreme Court has never directly ruled that, under the constitution, states must recognize all marriages from other states, and as a matter of general practice, states have sometimes invoked their right not to recognize a marriage from another state that is contrary to its public policy.]

So what they were doing was reaching, for political purposes, to drive a wedge. But it is within the rights of a state to define marriage. That's within state's rights. And, you know, the majority of people in most states have a different view about what constitutes marriage. So this is a debate that's going on now. People have different views. What I think is important is to fight for fundamental rights. To me, the focus right now ought to be on the application of the equal protection clause - ought to be gaining the foothold of employment non-discrimination, gaining the foothold of hate crimes legislation, making sure that we're protecting people's ability to share the same rights - partnership rights, tax code treatment rights, ownership rights, Social Security - those rights are what are important to me. That's what's governed more by the state and it becomes less of conflict between ...religion and the state, if you will.

Now I wonder what Kerry would say about the Leviticus Crowd rally for marriage in Minnesota. Typical signs included "Death Penalty for Homosexuals", "No Homos as Leaders", "No Sodomite Marriages" and "Bush up arrow, God up arrow, Gays down arrow." See the freakshow here.

See also BoiFromTroy.