Why can't John Kerry say something like this?

[Brian_Expat]

It would pretty much stick a fork in the Republicans' hate campaign, but it feels like the Democratic campaign is still too yellow to go up against the Republicans with this simple point.

http://www.democracyforamerica.com/features/2004/07/23/vermonts_lessons_on_gay_marriage.php

Just as the civil rights movement and subsequent integration began the process of removing painful stereotypes about African-Americans, so does the open declaration and subsequent demand for equal rights begin to remove stereotypes about the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community.

Contrary to the rhetoric of social conservatives, gay Americans are patriotic, serve honorably in the armed forces and die in the service of their country. One of the most extraordinary people I met when running for president was an 80-year-old gay veteran who had served on the beach in Normandy during D-day.

We also now know that there is a strong genetic component to being gay or lesbian. From a medical point of view, there is virtually no scientific evidence to support the myth that sexual orientation can be changed, although we know that throughout history, sexuality can be repressed, often with disastrous results.

While it is true that the Bible (largely the Old Testament) condemns homosexuality in a few places, it equally condemns eating shellfish. Jesus never mentions homosexuality. The bottom line is this: America is grappling with the discarding of old stereotypes about a group of people who have been part of our country since America has been a country. All Americans are diminished when we allow stereotyping to dismiss the worth of fellow Americans. All Americans are stronger and the nation is stronger, when we judge people by whom they are, not what they are.

[Suzi Creamcheese]

1. I thought Kerry/Edwards were against gay marriage

How can they be against gay marriage and then say something like that?

[Brian_Expat]

3. Howard Dean is against gay marriage too

His article is about civil unions.

Supposedly Kerry and Edwards are for civil unions too.

Can't they stand up and say the demonization of gay people is wrong, and that gay people deserve the same rights under the law that others have?

[JI7]

2. Kerry has said similar things

<One woman stood up and asked Kerry to distance himself from "homosexual activists" who compare gay rights to the civil rights movement." My point is homosexuality is an idea," she said. "You have never heard a doctor say, `Mr. and Mrs. John Doe, you have a bouncing baby homosexual.' It's an idea."

Kerry said he believed that marriage should be preserved for "a man and a woman" and then launched into his most impassioned defense to date of gay rights.

He reminded the woman that African Americans were once denied entrance to universities, and insisted that just as the Equal Protection Clause protected them, so, too, should it protect the rights of gays and lesbians.

"I believe it's important in the United States of America that we recognize that we have a Constitution which has an equal protection clause," Kerry said.

He then compared the "crucifixion of Matthew Shepard," the Wyoming 21-year-old gay man who was beaten, tied to a fence, and left to die in the fall of 1998, with the dragging death of an African-American Texan, James Byrd Jr., whose murder earlier in 1998 sparked new efforts for hate crimes legislation.

"The only point I want to make to you is," he told the woman, "I've talked to enough people — some of whom fought for their country in war — and I've talked to many of them who didn't discover their own sexuality until they were 35, 40 years old, and it wasn't because they made a choice, it was because they found out who they were. And I think you have to respect that that is the nature of it. And you can look at it, and argue it, but you know what, that's irrelevant to the argument. American citizens deserve the protection of the equal protection clause."

His remarks drew strong applause from the predominantly African-American audience of 700. >

http://www.365gay.com/newscon04/03/030804kerryGays.htm

[Brian_Expat]

4. Wow!

Then he's got to promote this better.

Write it down, send it out, stand for it. Don't let the Republicans frame this issue!