Democratic Candidates Endorse Gay Rights
James Nimmo
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-071503gays_lat,1,1289996.story?coll=la-home-leftrail
3:52 PM PDT, July 15, 2003
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Democratic Candidates Endorse Gay Rights
All of the 2004 contenders back measures to bar discrimination against homosexuals. Several candidates balk at supporting gay marriage.
By RONALD BROWNSTEIN, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON -- All of the Democratic presidential candidates gave an unprecedented endorsement today to measures that would bar discrimination against homosexuals. The leading candidates, however, balked at embracing gay marriage.
In response to a questionnaire from a major gay rights group, and in appearances before the organization in Washington, each endorsed a ban on hiring discrimination against gays. And all except Sen. Bob Graham of Florida said they would seek to repeal the compromise used for the military, known as "don't ask, don't tell," that former President Bill Clinton implemented that allowed gays to serve.
All the candidates also said they would support "civil unions" that would offer gay couples many of the same rights and benefits provided to heterosexual married couples.
But all six leading candidates said they opposed providing same-sex couples the right to marry a right that gay activists are seeking.
Despite the resistance to gay marriage, the responses to the Human Rights Campaign questionnaire and the appearances at the group's forum may mark the broadest commitment yet to gay rights by candidates seeking the White House.
The event itself marked a milestone in the growing political influence of gays, especially in the Democratic Party: organizers said it was the first time such a large group of presidential candidates had gathered specifically to address issues raised by what the organizers called "the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community."
All of the Democratic contenders attended except Sens. John Edwards of North Carolina and Graham, who cited other commitments. All nine completed the group's detailed issues survey; it explored their views on a range of issues, including AIDS, adoption by gay parents, gay marriage and the service of gays in the military.
The session came as gay activists were exulting in the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down state anti-sodomy laws and while awaiting a decision from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court that could make the state the first to recognize gay marriage.
The session also marked the latest stop in a steeplechase of events that have paraded the Democratic contenders before party interest groups representing such constituencies as Latinos, African Americans and government employees. One day earlier, the leaders of the NAACP had excoriated several of the contenders for missing their gathering in Miami.
Peter LaBarbera, a senior policy analyst with the Culture and Family Institute, a conservative think tank, said that the Democratic contenders had embraced so much of the gay movement's agenda that they would alienate swing voters in the general election.
"They are out of step," he said. "They are playing to what they regard as their base, but they are forgetting there is a whole other country out there."
Polls over the past few years have shown growing acceptance of gays in many respects; a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll after the recent Supreme Court decision found that Americans, by 2-1, believed that the law should permit homosexuals to have sex in their own homes. But in the same survey, 55% of Americans said gay marriage should not be permitted.
At the session, moderated by ABC News correspondent Sam Donaldson before a large crowd in a Washington conference center, the issue of gay marriage provoked the most fireworks.
The rules and requirements for marriage are set by state, not federal, law. But gay activists believe that a president who supported gay marriage could encourage states to authorize gay marriage through the bully pulpit.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois and the Rev. Al Sharpton, the three candidates generally considered the longest shots in the field, each said gays should be provided the legal right to marry.
But Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri the four candidates from the race's top tiers who attended all refused to endorse gay marriage. In their response to the questionnaire, Edwards and Graham likewise said they opposed the idea.
Instead, all of those Democrats except Lieberman said they would support states authorizing "civil unions" as an alternative to marriage. This would provide gay couples with many of the same rights and responsibilities as heterosexual couples. Lieberman did not say he would oppose civil unions, but indicated that he would leave the decision to the states.
As governor of Vermont, Dean signed into law the nation's only civil union bill a fact he touted heavily at the forum.
All of the contenders, except Lieberman, also said that if states sanction gay couples through a marriage or civil union statute, Washington should provide such homosexual couples all federal benefits available to heterosexual married couples such as survivors' benefits under Social Security and hospital visitation rights.
"Whether it's through gay marriage, or civil unions, or other means, gay couples should be able to claim the same rights and responsibilities as other couples have," Dean said.
Lieberman took a slightly different position, saying he would examine federal statutes one by one to determine which benefits to extend to gay couples.
Through the 90-minute session, the top tier contenders plainly struggled to explain why they supported civil unions but not gay marriage.
Since the Supreme Court decision, which struck down Texas' anti-sodomy law, conservatives have grown increasingly concerned that state courts may authorize gay marriage. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), reflecting those concerns, has called for a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to a man and a woman.
President Bush has kept his distance from a constitutional amendment, saying, "I don't know if it is necessary yet."
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