Hope for Republicans after all
I was just browsing AfterEllen.com, as I often do, and I was surprised to see a video of San Diego Mayor Republican Jerry Sanders publicly announcing his change of opinion about gay marriage. If anyone wants to watch the entire announcement, here it is:
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First of all, I think it's wonderful to hear a politician being so honest about what he thinks is right that he is moved to tears. In the political arena, when it comes to emotion, you have either Al Gore or Zell Miller, generally speaking. Crying may be seen as weak, but for those of us who care deeply about the issues, it brings me hope and makes me think that maybe not all politicians are as jaded and self-serving as they appear.
Second, it is also very refreshing to see a man who isn't either ashamed of his gay child or exploitative of it. According to Sarah Warn's blog on AE, his daughter Lisa came out four years ago. Until this point, he has been pro-civil unions, but not for gay marriage, but has now decided that he is making the right decision to support it. Sarah quotes a very touching sentence from his video in her blog: “In the end, I could not look any of them in the face and tell them that their relationships - their very lives - were any less meaningful than the marriage that I share with my wife Rana."
I say thank you to Jerry Sanders for being willing to stand up for gay rights even if it means going against your party's typically held beliefs. You're a far braver individual than Hillary Clinton, who told Ellen Degeneres that she is not in favor of gay marriage. What, Hillary? You don't want Portia di Rossi to be Ellen's legal wife? C'mon!
Pressconfsm
Uploaded by sanderspressconf
First of all, I think it's wonderful to hear a politician being so honest about what he thinks is right that he is moved to tears. In the political arena, when it comes to emotion, you have either Al Gore or Zell Miller, generally speaking. Crying may be seen as weak, but for those of us who care deeply about the issues, it brings me hope and makes me think that maybe not all politicians are as jaded and self-serving as they appear.
Second, it is also very refreshing to see a man who isn't either ashamed of his gay child or exploitative of it. According to Sarah Warn's blog on AE, his daughter Lisa came out four years ago. Until this point, he has been pro-civil unions, but not for gay marriage, but has now decided that he is making the right decision to support it. Sarah quotes a very touching sentence from his video in her blog: “In the end, I could not look any of them in the face and tell them that their relationships - their very lives - were any less meaningful than the marriage that I share with my wife Rana."
I say thank you to Jerry Sanders for being willing to stand up for gay rights even if it means going against your party's typically held beliefs. You're a far braver individual than Hillary Clinton, who told Ellen Degeneres that she is not in favor of gay marriage. What, Hillary? You don't want Portia di Rossi to be Ellen's legal wife? C'mon!
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