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| Members of the Massachusetts Legislature take up a controversial amendment to the state constitution that would ban gay marriage on March 11. Last month, gay rights proponents blocked three earlier attempts to ban gay marriage in the constitution. (AP photo) |
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John Kerry for President, Inc.
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202-548-6800
www.johnkerry.com
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HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
By: ADRIAN BRUNE
COMMENTS |
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In remarks made Feb. 26 from the campaign trail, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) unequivocally
backed amending the Massachusetts Constitution to prohibit gay marriage, disappointing
a number of the presumed Democratic presidential nominee’s gay supporters.
Ending speculation around previous statements that appeared to back such an
amendment in theory, Kerry explicitly stated he would support the amendment
if it also guaranteed same-sex couples access to civil unions, which he said
convey all the legal rights of marriage. That claim is disputed by gay rights
activists and runs contrary to a ruling last month by the Massachusetts Supreme
Judicial Court.
At the same, Kerry also reiterated his opposition to a similar ban proposed
by President Bush for the U.S. Constitution, saying, “For 200 years [marriage]
has been a state issue.”
Kerry waited weeks before nailing down his position, but gay lobby groups
immediately issued statements of disappointment, calling into question their
support for Kerry’s White House bid.
“While we acknowledge the senator’s strong opposition to a federal
constitutional amendment, supporting a divisive measure in his own state is
exceptionally disheartening,” said Cheryl Jacques, executive director
of the Human Rights Campaign, a position she took after stepping down as a
Massachusetts state senator. “Make no mistake, civil unions single out
a group of people for second-class treatment.”
Other activists questioned whether there was hypocrisy in Kerry’s effort
to defend “traditional marriage” in light of his own nuptial history.
In a Washington Post interview last year, Kerry said, “I have a belief
that marriage is for the purpose of procreation and it’s between men
and women.”
“This is a familiar objection to gay marriage, and one that may sound
reasoned and substantive, but it amounts to ridiculous sophistry,” wrote
Michael Crowley, a New Republic columnist. “By Kerry’s procreation
logic, why allow infertile heterosexuals to marry? What purposes could these
marriages have?
“The question answers itself. Particularly for Kerry, whose marriage
to Teresa Heinz has yet to produce a child — and, it seems safe to say,
isn’t likely to produce one in the future.”
Kerry’s recent proclamations actually reversed a position he took two
years ago, expressed in a letter he signed with his congressional colleagues
beseeching the Massachusetts legislature to terminate the amendment. Grassroots
organizers say Kerry is sacrificing his original views to reach out to moderate
voters in the general election.
“This last month has shown us that leaders across the country — from
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to Richard Daley in Chicago — can stand
up for our rights without backlash,” said John Aravosis, co-founder of
DontAmend.com, a Web site opposing a federal marriage amendment.
“Kerry may think that by taking this point of view, he is appealing
to the mainstream. But by reinforcing it consistently, he is annoying gay people
and causing straight people to regard him as a candidate who waffles on more
universal issues,” Aravosis said.
The Kerry campaign maintains that, as a candidate for president, Kerry has
a responsibility to separate his own personal experiences with marriage from
the positions he believes will benefit the country as a whole.
“He must support policy which he believes is in the best interests of
the public and uniting the public,” said Jeff Trammell, an adviser to
the Kerry campaign on gay issues who played a similar role during Al Gore’s
2000 candidacy. “This is best achieved through civil unions.”
Trammell also said that Kerry has not wavered in his support for limiting
marriage to heterosexual couples, while he built a career history of rejecting
legislation that jeopardized the recognition of gay relationships.
“He, like everyone, is shaped by personal experience, but he showed
great respect for LGBT people long before the mainstream,” Trammell said.
After meeting his first wife, Julia Throne, through his best friend and her
twin brother, David, Kerry’s married life started out conventionally
enough. Introduced in 1963 during a visit to the Thorne family’s Long
Island estate, Thorne — heiress to a $300 million Wall Street fortune — remained
with Kerry through his Yale years and his two tours in Vietnam. They married
in 1970, according to the Boston Globe.
When he returned home, Kerry became active in politics, leading the Vietnam
Veterans Against the War, followed by a run for the U.S. Congress in 1972 on
an anti-war platform. The change in focus catapulted Thorne into the “teeming
and often vicious world of politics,” she said in an interview with the
Mail on Sunday, a British tabloid, and their marriage began to suffer.
After his failed Congressional run, Kerry enrolled in law school at Boston
College — ...
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