Thursday, August 30, 2007

Prez Candidates Must Deal With Equality

Today must have been a scary day for Jonathan Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, et al.

A Polk County judge on Thursday struck down Iowa's law banning gay marriage. The ruling by Judge Robert Hanson concluded that the state's prohibition on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and he ordered Polk County Recorder Julie Haggerty to issue marriage licenses to several gay couples.
I'm curious to see how the campaigns - all opposed to same-sex marriage - will react. Obviously, since this happened in Iowa, it's going to be on the radar. Hopefully, we'll see the Big 3 praise the courts and encourage the further spread of equality. Consider this one of the campaign's first big tests: it's one thing to say you're for equality, it's another thing to support it.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

yes indeedy!

clinton in particular has strongly stated many times how she supports states making their own decisions. the others have said the same, although somehow not so forcefully, imo. rhetorically, they have prepared themselves well for fielding this sort of news.

i'm actually most interested to see how the repubs handle this states rights event. they were all about states rights until states started slacking off on legalized homophobia.

Ryan said...

lol Laurel. I'd be more interested in the Republicans, but I think we can all guess where they're going to go.

Anonymous said...

did you see that 20 couples managed to get married in the 4 hr window between the pro-equality ruling and the stay pending appeal?

who will be the 1st candidate to have the grace to congratulate them for taking this brief opportunity to reclaim what has been stolen from us?

who will throw a wedding reception to honor the love and commitment and fabulousness of those newly minted MARRIAGES?

Anonymous said...

It's interesting the candidates won't come right out and say what they feel though. Don't beat around the Bush, why can't Hillary just say "As an individual I fully support gay marriage" or is she afraid to state her opinions. Or any of the others, at least I will support their honesty.

Ryan said...

I've long-since given up on politicians for actually, somewhere deep down inside, truly supporting marriage equality, but saying other things for political expediency. I'm sure that's the case for some, but I'd bet top dollar there are a lot of Democratic politicians out there who really view marriage as a religious entity that demands one woman and one man.

About Ryan's Take