"No Thanks, Bernie: Virginia Abortion Rights Advocates Know Better" (Title)

[Rilgin]

57. Here is an article on Perrielo's evolution

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tom-perriello-virginia-governor-abortion-rights-stupak-pitts_us_586ff6c8e4b02b5f8588c4db

In this article you can see that it is not a sudden conversion on his part for this election or just for this election. Here is a quote from the article:

"In 2013 he co-hosted an event in Washington, D.C., held by NARAL Pro-Choice America dubbed “Men for Choice.” Last year, in an interview for HuffPost’s Candidate Confessional podcast, he called Stupak the “worst vote of his career.”

There is more in that article but if you read this with an open mind I think you will see that your labeling him as anti choice is an exaggeration. He did have one bad vote and is within the range of democratic thought on pro-choice policies and with regard to your one reference he considers it the worst vote of his career.

On planned parenthood, I saw it in an article but I can not find it now but using google I found another article from a right wing site criticizing Perrielo on being a bad catholic and citing Pirrelo's facebook profile which had this quote which should again help you feel some comfort that he is running as pro-choice:

"This week’s assault on Planned Parenthood in Washington represents a vicious attack on women’s rights and women’s health. I have always been pro-choice and a supporter of Roe v. Wade. I believe that women should have the constitutional right to make their own decisions in consultation with their family and physician and without meddling from politicians. I’m proud of the pro-choice votes I took in Congress, including against efforts to restrict funding to Planned Parenthood, and bar the District of Columbia from spending its own money for abortion services.

At the same time, I want to be very clear that I regret my vote on the Stupak-Pitts Amendment. At the time, I had extensive conversations with my constituents in Virginia’s Fifth and pledged at dozens of public meetings that I would support health care reform only if it was consistent with the Hyde Amendment. I believed at the time that voting for the Stupak amendment was the only way to meet that pledge."


With respect to Hillary and gay marriage. You do know she ran for the Senate in 2000 and ran for President in 2008. Here are two articles (there are many and its easy to check on other quotes) on Hillary's evolution on gay marriage and a few direct quotes from the usatoday (sorry to use that sorry rag but it has direct quotes) article that show all the way until 2013 she resisted full marriage equality although she had an evolving political position testing if she could get away with supporting civil unions as long as it was not marriage.

And to show that again she is not the worst on this issue just has warts, she was not totally dogmatic and started developing acceptance of civil unions while continuing to support DOMA and oppose actual gay marriage as a principle. But you will see that people in the gay community considered her as willing to throw gay rights under the bus as you keep using the term while others who wanted to support her resisted attacking her on that point and pointed to her evolution or tried to defend her positions over time.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/03/20/hillary-clinton-gay-marriage/2001229/

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/06/hillary-clintons-gay-marriage-problem/372717/

Here is a quote from 2000 during her senate race: " "Marriage has historic, religious and moral content that goes back to the beginning of time, and I think a marriage is as a marriage has always been, between a man and a woman," said Clinton

On June 18, 2003, she gave an interview to New York's WNYC, where she affirmed: "You know, marriage has a meaning that ... I think should be kept as it historically has been, but I see no reason whatsoever why people in committed relationships can't have ... many of the same rights and the same ... respect for their unions that they are seeking. And I would like to see that be more accepted than it is. ... I also think that we can realize the same results for many committed couples by urging that states and localities adopt civil union and domestic partnership laws."

"As late as the 2008 presidential race, Clinton still opposed same-sex marriage, advocating civil unions and leaving the legality of marriage to the states"

"All of this changed this week {the article is from 2013} when Clinton finally supported equal rights rather than some version of the same type of rights for gay married couples], when the Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights group with which Clinton has personal ties, posted a video where Clinton came out in favor of gay marriage. The timing comes as the U.S. Supreme Court readies to hear two major cases dealing with gay marriage. "LGBT Americans are our colleagues, our teachers, our soldiers, our friends, our loved ones, and they are full and equal citizens and deserve the rights of citizenship," said Clinton. "That includes gay marriage."
Alas, here we are: Hillary Clinton has endorsed gay marriage."

Hopefully, this will help you quell your outrage against Perrielo although you might still prefer Northam as is your right and more questioning as to whether you are actually getting the full story or just being manipulated to feel outrage to fulfill someone elses political goals.