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Edited on Mon Oct-04-04 09:22 PM by CocaCola58204
If gay voters wanted a better champion than John Kerry, they'd have to invent him. The three-term senator boasts a near-perfect voting record on gay and AIDS-related causes, a record virtually unrivaled among national politicians.
Kerry has gone far beyond allies who vote with the community but risk little in doing so. He has sponsored federal gay rights legislation dating to 1985, when such stances were considered far more politically dangerous, and early HIV-prevention and treatment bills.
During the 1993 backlash against President Clinton's effort to lift the military ban on gay service members, Kerry faced down fellow Democratic senator Sam Nunn in riveting congressional testimony. And Kerry was one of only 14 senators to vote against the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act.
However, the Kerry-Edwards campaign has failed to catch fire among LGBT voters. In PlanetOut's August "Political Spectrum" survey of our readers, for instance, respondents repeatedly described him as the "lesser of two evils," and declared that they are far more motivated by disdain for President Bush's antipathy to gay equality than by Kerry's stellar record of leadership. They waxed nostalgic for President Clinton, who came into office with a far spottier record, and yearned for a serious third-party candidate.
All of which raises fundamental questions bedeviling the Kerry campaign: Why is a candidate with his record maligned in the very community he has supported? And why is he doing so little to counter this perception and rev up the gay vote?
The most obvious answer lies in the single burning issue that has vexed his campaign from the beginning: marriage, on which he has staked out confusing and contradictory stands.
On one hand, he opposes the Federal Marriage Amendment, championed by President Bush. On the other, he has sent mixed signals on statewide same-sex marriage bans on the November ballot in 10 states. (Missouri and Louisiana passed prohibitions earlier this year.)
When asked to clarify Kerry's position, campaign spokesman Jin Chon said, "John Kerry believes that marriage is an issue for states to decide. He does not support same-sex marriage, but he does support equal rights for gay couples. The best way to achieve those rights is through civil unions."http://www.planetout.com/news/feature.html?sernum=963
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