by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff - LINK
Posted: August 6, 2004 12:01 am ET
(Cape Girardeau, Missouri) Senator John Edwards, campaigning Thursday in Cape Girardeau, said he and running mate John Kerry have "no objection" to this week's vote in Missouri to amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage.
"We're both opposed to gay marriage and believe that states should be allowed to decide this question," Edwards said in an interview Thursday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. [CABN emphasis]
Kerry said the issue is one of states rights. Both Kerry ad Edwards oppose amending the US Constitution to stop gays from marrying.
Kerry is already on record supporting a similar amendment to the constitution of his home state, Massachusetts. (story) Both members of the Democratic ticket support giving limited rights to same-sex couples.
On Tuesday, Missouri became the first state since the legalization of gay marriage in Massachusetts to vote on amending its constitution. More than 70 percent of voters supported the amendment.
Louisiana residents are to vote on a marriage amendment Sept. 18. Then Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, Oregon and Utah are to vote on the issue Nov. 2. There also are initiatives pending in Michigan, North Dakota and Ohio.
Edwards comments are likely to anger gay rights advocates, but garner support among independent and undecided voters in the South were states rights is an important issue.
©365Gay.com® 2004
-Cape Girardeau, Missouri, was an 1861 headquarters of then US Brig-Gen Ulysses S. Grant as he began his sucessful military campaign to crush an earlier effort to shield inequality--then of slavery and racism-- under the bloody banner of "states rights."
Relying not on Kerry and Edwards but on our own militant action, we can defeat this effort as well.
BOB SCHWARTZ
CABN Coordinating Cmte
