Sunday, November 23, 2003

GAY MARRIAGE DECISION FIREWORKS PREVIEW

From Houston Chronicle editorial writer Cragg Hines:

Politicians really don't know what to make of homosexuals, a point that will become intensely clear as the states and nation deal with the Massachusetts court decision striking down a law against gay marriage. Reactions and rhetoric in the debate will range from sincerely supportive or merely patronizing, principally on the Democratic side, to tetchy, denunciatory or damning, the specialty of many Republicans.

On virtually no issue are politicians more schizo than on homosexuality. While some politicians would contend that some of their best friends (not to mention staff members) are gay men or lesbians, with polls showing 60 percent of Americans opposed to gay marriage, this is not an issue that a host of mainstream politicians are going readily to embrace. Just sift through the predictable equivocations of the major Democratic presidential candidates on the Massachusetts ruling.

One prediction that should prove fairly reliable is that at few turns, especially when votes are being cast, will the issue be treated as the simple civil rights question that it has become.


Indeed. Click here.

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