Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The Right Side, The Equal Side


"Public officials aren’t supposed to change their minds. But I firmly believe that it’s important to keep learning. Last week, while I was in Connecticut meeting with members of the gay and lesbian community from across the state, I had the opportunity to tell them what I’ve learned about marriage, and about equality. While I’ve long been for extending every benefit of marriage to same-sex couples, I have in the past drawn a distinction between a marriage-like status (“civil unions”) and full marriage rights.

The reason was simple: I was raised to believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. And as many other Americans have realized as they’ve struggled to reconcile the principle of fairness with the lessons they learned early in life, that’s not an easy thing to overcome. But the fact that I was raised a certain way just isn’t a good enough reason to stand in the way of fairness anymore. The Connecticut Supreme Court, of course, has ruled that such a distinction holds no merit under the law. And the Court is right."
--Senator Chris Dodd announcing that he has reversed his position and now fully supports marriage equality.

2 comments:

  1. I liked him during the primaries and like him even more now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "But the fact that I was raised a certain way just isn’t a good enough reason to stand in the way of fairness anymore."

    Did you hear that? It was the ring of truth and logic.

    ReplyDelete

Say anything, but keep it civil .......