Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

And the furious backpedaling begins!

By

Once upon a time, there was a socially liberal Republican.  But that was a long, long time ago….

Bill Weld, once believed to be the world’s only straight Republican who favored gay marriage, has now apparently backed off his previous position.  Gosh, d’you think this might have anything to do with his just-announced bid to govern the Empire State, and his attendant need to get the endorsement not only of New York Republicans, but also the wingnuttish Conservative Party?

Weld’s "reasoning," if it has been reported correctly, is laughable.  He says that he supports gay marriage in Massachusetts because the Massachusetts Constitution is special, and the Supreme Judicial Court interpreted the special provisions of the special Massachusetts Constitution in the correct, special way that inevitably leads to gay marriage.  But no other state has such a special Constitution as Massachusetts does, so non-Mass. gays only get civil unions.

Please.  The words of the Massachusetts Constitution’s equal protection provisions are really not much different from those of any other state, or of the US Constitution for that matter.  The Mass. Constitution says:

All people are born free and equal and have certain natural, essential and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness. Equality under the law shall not be denied or abridged because of sex, race, color, creed or national origin.

Pretty straightforward.  The SJC read those words (and others like them elsewhere in the Constitution) to mean that gay people must be allowed to marry.  End of story.  There is nothing so unusual about the words of the Massachusetts document that sets it apart from every other Constitution in the country.  Either you think that general equal protection language like that means that gay people get to marry, or you don’t.  Weld cannot tenably claim that he thinks the SJC got it right, but that the same reasoning wouldn’t apply in other states.

Some (like leading GLBT lobbyist Arline Isaacson and Log Cabin Republican stalwart Patrick Guerriero) are holding out hope that Weld has been misquoted or misunderstood, and that he really hasn’t backed off his previous strong support for gay marriage in general.  We should know soon – now that he’s gone public with wanting to be NY’s Gov, he won’t be able to stay vague on this for long.

Please share widely!
fb-share-icon
Tweet
0

Comments

  1. Wow, that was a truly impressive ass-tonguing Patrick Guerrero delivered in that Globe article!To someone who obviously doesn’t merit it. What a piece of work Weld is.

  7. Well, sorry to everyone who had to read all that. It’s David’s post, which means I can’t edit it or delete comments.And actually I don’t know if I would. If this series of comments doesn’t show the profoundly neurotic, weird, repressed side of homophobia, I don’t know what does. And at its core, I suspect that the homophobia of Kris Mineau and James Dobson et al is not so different from this infantile, scatological stuff. So maybe we should just read and learn.

  12. Wow, what happened above?Mitt Romney makes me miss Bill Weld. He wasn’t such a bad guy after all.I think it would be great for dems id weld won. He is not a hard ass right winger and not afraid to take stands contrary to repubs.We can work with this guy. Can’t work with Romney.NY might like him after they get to know him. You know, thewy have been seeing Spritzer for many years now and he did good job of keeping other dems out, but that doiesn’t mean he can’t be taken and weld has smarts and personality to do it.

Archives