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发帖数: 4174 | 1 Posted on Advocate.com June 14, 2011 08:55:00 AM ET
GOP Candidates on Marriage, DADT Repeal
By Andrew Harmon
From left: 2012 Republican presidential candidates Rep. Michele Bachmann,
Newt Gingrich, and Mitt Romney Despite optimism that New York will become
the next state in the nation to endorse marriage equality — a victory that
hinges on support from key state Republican lawmakers — many candidates
vying for the 2012 GOP nomination presented a regressive view of the future
during Monday's CNN presidential debate in New Hampshire, with a solid
majority supporting a federal constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Of the candidates invited to the debate, only Herman Cain and Rep. Ron Paul
opposed a federal marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Cain said the
matter should be left up to the states, while Paul held a libertarian view
and argued that government should not be in the business of marriage.
The remaining candidates, Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick
Santorum, and Rep. Michele Bachmann, expressed support for a constitutional
amendment.
Bachmann, who officially announced her 2012 candidacy at the debate, said "I
don’t see that it’s the role of a president to go into states and
interfere with their state laws," yet moments later said she supported an
amendment restricting marriage to a man and a woman, arguing in part that "
the best possible way to raise children is to have a mother and father in
their life."
Gingrich, who presided over the House of Representatives as Speaker during
the passage of the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, criticized the Obama
administration’s decision not to defend the law in federal court and said
that if the law is struck down, a constitutional amendment would become
necessary.
Former Georgia representative Bob Barr, author of DOMA, has since said that
the Obama administration should take steps not to enforce the law and has
called for its legislative repeal.
"I can see a number of folks, including some that are making sounds about
running for president on the Republican side, using [DOMA] as a rallying cry
to push for a Federal Marriage Amendment again," Barr told The Advocate in
April. "I don’t think it would succeed, but I think … the implication is
that it could lead to a renewed effort to get a Federal Marriage Amendment
through in this lead-up to the 2012 election."
The candidates took an equally regressive stance on repeal of “don’t ask,
don’t tell,” which Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in a Monday
interview with the AP could be formally certified by the time he leaves
office on June 30: The same group of debate participants who called for a
federal marriage amendment also voiced support for keeping the ban on open
service in the armed forces.
“I believe it should have been kept in place until conflict was over,”
Romney said.
The lack of pro-gay candidate participation in the debate, Log Cabin
Republicans executive director R. Clarke Cooper noted on Saturday, “
perpetuates the myth that Republicans are uniform in their opinions on
social issues — a myth which hurts the Republican Party among independents,
moderates, and younger voters.”
Fred Karger, a Republican and the first openly gay presidential candidate,
was not invited to the debate. Asked about the candidates’ performance on
Monday evening, Karger replied via email, “Bachmann is looking good. The
rest of the bunch, not." |
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