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Al Gore Voices Support For Gay Marriage
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: January 23, 2008 - 5:00 pm ET
(New York City) Former Vice President Al Gore has
come out in favor of same-sex marriage.
"I don’t understand why it is considered
by some people to be a threat to heterosexual marriage to allow it by gays and
lesbians," Gore said in a posting on his person blog in the Current.com
website.
"Shouldn’t we be promoting the kind of
faithfulness and loyalty to one’s partner regardless of sexual
orientation?"
Current is the news network founded by Gore.
"[T]he loyalty and love that two people feel
for one another when they fall in love ought to be celebrated and encouraged and
shouldn’t be prevented by any form of discrimination in the law," Gore
said in the video posting.
In 2000 when he ran for president Gore said he
supported civil unions or contracts but not marriage.
His turnaround was hailed by gay Democrats.
"We applaud Vice President Gore for firmly
stating his support for allowing same-sex couples the freedom to marry. It is a
position which some would still call courageous, but which a new generation of
Americans would call common sense," said Jon Hoadley, Executive Director of
National Stonewall Democrats.
"Vice President Gore has demonstrated
leadership on this subject, and we encourage all Democratic leaders who restrain
their consciences out of political expediency to demonstrate their leadership as
well."
None of the frontrunners seeking the Democratic
nomination for president supports same-sex marriage.
"Clearly, the environment is not the only
thing that Al Gore is right about," said Sean Kosofsky a spokesperson for
Triangle Foundation, Michigan's largest LGBT rights group.
In New Jersey, where gays are pressing the
legislature for same-sex marriage, Garden State Equality said Gore's remarks
made him the highest-ranking public figure in the United States to endorse
marriage equality for same-sex couples.
New Jersey allows civil unions but Garden State
Equality says it has received complaints from 512 couples since the law took
effect on February 19, 2007 that employers are not respecting their civil unions
because civil unions are not marriage.
Nearly 100 civil-unioned couples and other
witnesses recently testified about the failure of the civil union law over eight
hours of hearings of the New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission, which
will release its first interim report on Tuesday, February 19, 2008, the
one-year anniversary of the law.
"Al Gore gets it in a way that the others
don't," said Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality.
"In the real world, civil unions don't give
same-sex couples the rights and benefits of marriage, because employers view
civil unions as inferior. In New Jersey, the failure of
employers to recognize civil unions like marriage has resulted in a failure rate
of our civil union law of at least 1 in every 5."
Legislation to allow gays and lesbians to marry
in Maryland will be introduced on Friday.
The issue of same-sex marriage will be argued in
the California Supreme Court later this year, and in Vermont, the first state to
allow civil unions, a committee set up by lawmakers will deliver its report on
whether to convert civil unions to marriage sometime this spring.
Massachusetts is the only state where same-sex
marriage is legal.
©365Gay.com 2008
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