John Edwards and Civil Unions

Posted on February 20, 2007
| buzz-it! | Huff it!

The You Tube poster, who can be found at nickadamsweb, headlines this video, “John Edwards speaking at Dartmouth College equivocating his ass off on gay marriage.”

From my point of view, this is closer to what I wanted to hear from Edwards than what I’ve heard before. I have praised Hillary for her affirmative, half a loaf, statement supporting civil unions but knocked Edwards for gratuitous equivocating on the subject. It’s still half a loaf but he’s not pulling out the whole loaf and then taking half away. To my ear, he is not equivocating, but describing — and not totally defending — his own weakness. Mentioning his daughter suggests he truly believes in a better way. I’d suggest he work that emphasis more.

I wrote the Edwards campaign about this issue and the specifics of his earlier statement that caused me to cringe. I’d like to think he and his people heard me. It’s pretty clear he’s at least heard people like me.

The next question, as I watch the video, is will this man become an advocate when advocacy is called for? I’m not asking any of these candidates to take up gay rights to the exclusion of any other worthy issues and initiatives. What I want to know is will this current crop of Dems step up to this civil rights issue when called on and do the right thing? In the midst of a broad culture war will a new Democratic president affirm equal rights in words and action, pretend to do so — as Bush does on environment, or will they hide like Reagan did in the midst of the worst of the AIDS crisis?

Can Edwards overcome the bias he speaks of in refreshing candor? Will Hillary play both sides (which can be done to our benefit or detriment)? Will Obama overcome his own “marriage is between a man and a woman” bias?

There are many deciding factors going into next years’ primaries. I’m going to choose the candidate who, in my opinion, will do the best overall. In this election, though, because of the attacks on glbts from the right, I’ll add more weight than ever to how the candidates comport themselves around the issues of gay equality.