Kerry says people are born gay; Nader's appeal wanes

[UpInArms]

http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/michigan/index.ssf?/newsflash/get_story.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?a0667_BC_Kerry-GayMarriage&&news&election2004

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry says he believes people are born gay but are not guaranteed the right to marry within their own gender.

"I think it's entirely who you are from birth, personally," Kerry said in an interview to be broadcast on MTV. "Some people might choose, but I think that it's, it's who you are. I think you have ... people need to be able to be who they are."

Asked why he favors civil unions instead of marriage if people are born gay, Kerry replied: "What is distinct is the institutional name or whatever people look at as the sacrament within a church, or within a synagogue or within a mosque as a religious institution. There is a distinction. And the civil state really just adopted that, and it's the rights that are important, not the sort of ... the name of the institution."

...more...

[absyntheNsugar]

1. First part is good, please let the second be true....

eom

[belle]

2. I get the line he's trying to walk, but it's still irritating.

I also believe that it's strictly political; you don't have to look too hard to see that he's basically trying to de facto o.k. gay marriage without inflaming the fundies any more than they already are, off of polls. Ultimately it won't work, though. But--it's a lot better than Shrub. sigh.

anyway none of the others except for Kucinich (and possibly Sharpton) have gone all the way to the wall on this, publicly.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pinto]

6. what are your views?...n/t

[Dr Fate]

7. Does Bush favor Civil Unions?

How about Dick Cheney- does he think his openly lesbian daughter should have rights?

Sad, Kerry sticks up for Cheney's daughter and supports civil unions, while Cheney betrays his own flesh & blood...

[htuttle]

4. The headline is extremely puzzling

I keep wanting to think of those two things as related, since there is a semi colon separating them, but the mind reels as it tries to figure it out.

Kind of like Louis Black's:
"If it wasn't for my horse, I would've never gotten that A in college."

[UpInArms]

8. LBN rules made me do it

:bounce:

and LBN rules kept me from posting too many paragraphs from the article - so sorry :(

[htuttle]

11. Oh, I know

And when I clicked on the link, I could see that it's really sort of two headlines put together for a 'political points'-type article.

I blame it on the headline writer. They shouldn't have used a semi-colon.

:hi:

[Leados]

26. Not to nitpick, but

It's "if it weren't for that horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college."

[Gloria]

5. Why step into this biology thing now? Do we need this now?

I agree with him on the born gay thing, that there probably is a genetic component, hormones, whatever...but why give more spinnable stuff to the wingnuts?? Just more distraction on the way....

Who is advising Kerry?

[yardwork]

9. The shrub has forced this issue with his silly constitutional amendment,

meaning that pea-brained "journalists" keep sticking the mic in Kerry's face and asking his views on the issue. Kerry has to respond.

[David Zephyr]

10. As A Gay Activist for Over 35 Years, It's Time to Cut Kerry Some Slack!

John Kerry will be the most gay-friendly President in American History.

Let's get the man elected, for Christ's sake.

[demigoddess]

12. i'm really pro gay marriage but give the guy

a break, if he can get himself elected it is a good thing and the country can get gay marriage through personal action and the courts ruling.

[Blasphemer]

15. Agreed...

I 100% support gay marriage but I think priority #1 is getting control of the Supreme Court. I don't care what political tightrope he has to walk to get there because I know that this will ultimately be decided in the court system.

[tedoll78]

20. Bingo.

This will all end before the U.S. Supreme Court. As long as Kerry pledges to get liberals onto the court, I'm more than willing to compromise since he has little chance of signing any real legislation concerning this.

[foreigncorrespondent]

13. If he truly believed...

...we are born gay, then he would hesitate for a moment in supporting gay marriage. It is just another cop out.

[yardwork]

22. You say cop out, I say politics.

Kerry has to get elected. If he gets into a big fight about gay rights during the campaign, he might lose the election.

Then we're back to the Shrub. At least two Supreme Court Justices want to retire yesterday (O'Connor and Rehnquist). Who do you think Shrub will get to replace them? Who do you think the Republican-controlled Congress will approve? Do you want two more Scalia clones? Can you IMAGINE what damage they would cause?

We need to stop asking for everything and settle for what is reasonable. Kerry sounds reasonable to me.

[foreigncorrespondent]

23. Yeah?

Well it does happen to be a cop out when people choose to play politics with peoples lives.

And NO I refuse to stop DEMANDING my rights as a citizen of my country and this world, until my rights are finally given back to me.

[yardwork]

24. Ok.

[IndianaGreen]

14. Hey Kerry! Liberal rabbis want to marry gay couples

BTW, marriage is a contract, not a sacrament. The word "sacrament" is inherently Christian and you should not be using it like Bush does.

[leQ]

16. i have a novel idea

let's just scrap the word marriage in every codified book in the land, and replace it with civil unions. all those presently holding marriage certificates, continue to be married. from now on though, everybody gets united through the civil sector, then if they want, get married in the religious sector.

everybody's happy, as long as the same law applies to all.

[SharonAnn]

18. In many formerly Catholic countries, the only "legal" union is the

one performed by the state. if the couple wants a religious "marriage", then they have that performed by their church or synagogue but it is not the legally binding event.

These countries do not permit religious clerics to perform a "marriage" or "legal union" that is recognized by the state.

We need the same thing!

[Twenty3]

19. It only makes sense (N/T)

:thumbsup:

[dax]

17. So is he saying religions that perform gay marriages are not allowed to?

Tying marriage to religion is a quagmire, John-boy. Many churches (including my own Unitarian Church) have been marrying gay couples for more than twenty years-the states just did not recognize it. If they try to say it is a religion problem, that is discrimination also because many religions recognize same sex couples-are they less equal religions in the eyes of the law because they don't interpret one religious text the same way someone else does? Who says the fundamentalist bible is the only basis for religion anyway? this ain't no slippery slope-ITS A WATERSLIDE!!!

[slinkerwink]

21. it's stupid---gay marriage is about a CIVIL license, not being married in

any fucking churches...

[TrogL]

25. Hey, I can live with that

What's saying is that government should get out of the marriage business.

[jeanmarc]

27. I think he's right, but it's sort of like intelligence

I have a feeling that sexual preference is likely a curve of some shape that is determined by dna. You can either be really straight, really gay, or you can have some sort of middleground between the two.

Based on my personal experience, there are some out there that are so gay that they would never be straight. But I think there's a chance that it's not some 'on/off' switch.

It doesn't matter. There's no reason to call these people different as a result of a behavior or choice. They are people and are entitled to rights. And it has zero to do with incest, polygamy or whatever.