FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 6, 2004
Contact: Chris Ortman, (513) 382-8789,
[email protected] Congressman and Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich has accepted an invitation from the Boston Pride steering committee to speak this Saturday, June 12th, at the annual celebration promoting equal rights for the LGBT community.
Kucinich, whose long-shot candidacy has been picking up steam in the past several weeks, is scheduled to speak at about 1 p.m., following Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. Immediately afterwards, he will be available to the news media to discuss his plans leading up to next month’s Democratic Convention. Interviews will be near the platform located at the intersection of Boylston and Charles.
Kucinich was invited to Boston Pride because of his adamant support of equal rights for the LGBT community, and most recently his support of the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling allowing marriage licenses to be granted to same-sex couples. Because of the landmark ruling, event organizers are expecting a larger-than-usual crowd this year.
After the ruling last March, Kucinich placed an open letter to Massachusetts voters in the Boston Globe, applauding the decision saying: “The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed that the state constitution holds same-sex couples equal in the eyes of the law. They got it right because we’re talking about ‘civil’ rights and about the rights and responsibilities provided by civil marriage.”
On the eve of the granting of the first legally-recognized same-sex marriage licenses in Cambridge, Kucinich celebrated the decision, but emphasized the need to go further. “The laws of Massachusetts will now apply equally to all loving and committed partners who enter into a civil marriage,” he said. “What those laws do not do, and what they cannot do, is extend the comparable federal protections and rights to those same partners. That is the next step a giant step that many of the political ‘leaders’ in our nation have not shown the courage to take.”
As part of a larger effort to influence the Democratic Party platform on several key issues, the Kucinich campaign is collecting signatures to petition the Democratic Party to make support of equal rights for all couples a part of the Democratic Party platform.
The Kucinich campaign is going all the way to the Democratic Convention and is currently organizing events surrounding the convention including workshops, street actions, a peace vigil, and a Progressive Convention.