His support of gay marriage in NY followed by his 180 degree change in direction the next day says all I need to know about him.
He has zero courage of his convictions.
I would respect him far more if he had stood by his first comment even if I disagree with it. Instead he changed course for what he thinks people wanted to hear.
He didn’t support gay marriage. He supported the 10th amendment.
He did not voice support of gay marriage. He voiced support for the 10th amendment.
Perry signs anti-gay marriage pledge
http://www.boston.com/Boston/politicalintelligence/2011/08/perry-signs-anti-gay-marriage-pledge/sGqX6Ir6FL4HZwyOQSzvKN/index.html
Texas Governor Rick Perry is the latest Republican presidential candidate to sign a pledge against gay marriage. The pledge confirms Perry’s reversal of an earlier statement he made that he would leave the definition of marriage up to the states.
The pledge, put out by the National Organization for Marriage, has become a standard commitment among this year’s GOP contenders. Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum have also signed the pledge. Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman is not signing any pledges.
The pledge commits a candidate to support a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman, defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court, appoint judicial nominees and an attorney general who would reject a constitutional right to gay marriage, establish a commission to investigate harassment of anti-gay marriage donors or organizers, and let the people of Washington, D.C., vote on gay marriage.
Perry has long opposed gay marriage. But he said in July, after New York legalized gay marriage, that he supports states’ rights and would not object if individual states implemented gay marriage. He told an audience in Colorado, “That’s New York, and that’s their business, and that’s fine with me.”
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What he supports is the constitution. And he would amend the constitution to ban gay marriage. But today, the constitution does not reference that subject so he supports the 10th amendment that leaves that up to the individual states.