Kucinich supports marriage for same-sex couples

Plain Dealer ^ | 07/16/03 | Tom Diemer and Sabrina Eaton

[bedolido]

Washington - Rep. Dennis Kucinich, whose political stances are attracting support from an array of liberal and celebrity donors, yesterday came out in support of same-sex marriage.

Kucinich's strong backing of gay marriage appears to mark a change in his thinking.

As a candidate for Congress in 1996, he said he opposed a change in law to allow same-sex marriages.

But yesterday, at a forum for presidential contenders sponsored by a gay-rights group, the Cleveland Democrat said "there should be a federal law that would allow gay couples to be married," rather than leaving the matter to the states.

"We cannot have states making separate rules with respect to basic human rights," Kucinich said at the Human Rights Campaign forum.

Asked about his apparent change since 1996, he told The Plain Dealer that gay issues were not in the forefront of his race that year against former Republican Rep. Martin Hoke. "The prin- ciple of equal protection un der the law should be ex tended to gays - and that in cludes mar riage," he said of his current position.

Patrick Shepherd, president of Cleveland Stonewall Democrats, said it was not unusual for a politician's views to evolve over a period as long as six years. "From a congressional-record point of view, Dennis Kucinich has been a superstar on our issues," said the spokesman for the gay political group.

Other candidates are wrestling with the gay-marriage issue - both in substance and semantics. Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, told the forum that he supports "civil unions" between gay partners that would extend to them the same legal rights afforded married heterosexuals. But Kerry said for historical, cultural and religious reasons, most in American society regard marriage as a "union between a man and a woman."

That wasn't good enough for many in the audience of about 350 who hissed at Kerry. Similar comments later in the day from Connecticut Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman drew a similarly negative reaction, the Associated Press reported.

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who signed the first state law institutionalizing gay civil unions, said "marriage is not a federal business" and should be left to the states and churches.

Former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun and New York minister Al Sharpton favor gay marriage. But, unlike Kucinich, Braun would leave the legalisms of institutionalizing gay marriage in the province of state governments and keep the federal government out of the marriage business.

No state at present sanctions gay "marriage." President Bush is against it. But the Canadian government has said it will move to legalize same-sex marriage.

Kucinich's stands on gay rights, the war in Iraq and other issues have won favor among celebrity donors.

And his campaign contributors list for the second quarter of this year reads like a Hollywood guest list.

Singer Bonnie Raitt, movie star Edward Norton, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream founder Ben Cohen and controversial television host Jerry Springer - now a U.S. Senate candidate in Ohio - all gave Kucinich the $2,000 maximum donation allowed by law, according to a report Kucinich filed with the Federal Elections Commission.

Kucinich also received contributions from folk singer Peter Yarrow and film stars Ben Affleck, Jeff Bridges and James Cromwell, an animal-rights activist who played Farmer Hoggett in the classic children's film "Babe." Each celebrity gave him $1,000.

Larry Hagman, television star of "Dallas" and "I Dream of Jeannie," gave him $500. "Dharma and Greg" star Mimi Kennedy gave him $450, and actor Eric Roberts, $375.

Two-thirds of the $1.5 million that Kucinich raised in the three months covered by the filing came in over the Internet, said Kucinich spokesman Jeff Cohen. While Kucinich's money-raising tally was a big jump from the $173,000 he raised last quarter, it was significantly less than his rivals.

[laweeks]

Now he can marry that ventriloquist doll in his office and no one will notice. What a maroon!

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[babyface00]

Now he can marry that ventriloquist doll in his office and no one will notice

How do you tell which one's the dummy?

[laweeks]

"How do you tell which one's the dummy?"

The one who has changed his stance on every single issue, homosexual rights, abortion, etc.

[babyface00]

Kucinich's strong backing of gay marriage appears to mark a change in his thinking

That is predicated by the assumption that he actually thinks. Somehow, I suspect the merry moron is more likely to feel, like a good Demonrat.

(Can you tell I despise the cretin?)

[Paul Atreides]

Singer Bonnie Raitt, movie star Edward Norton, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream founder Ben Cohen and controversial television host Jerry Springer - now a U.S. Senate candidate in Ohio - all gave Kucinich the $2,000 maximum donation allowed by law, according to a report Kucinich filed with the Federal Elections Commission.

Kucinich also received contributions from folk singer Peter Yarrow and film stars Ben Affleck, Jeff Bridges and James Cromwell, an animal-rights activist who played Farmer Hoggett in the classic children's film "Babe." Each celebrity gave him $1,000.

Larry Hagman, television star of "Dallas" and "I Dream of Jeannie," gave him $500. "Dharma and Greg" star Mimi Kennedy gave him $450, and actor Eric Roberts, $375.

That's not a donor list I'd be bragging about.

[tortoise]

This is the least disturbing aspect of his platform.

[Las Vegas Dave]

Ping!

[Commiewatcher]

Of course no commentary whatsoever from once respectable PD journalists like Dick Feagler and Brent Larkin. But Feagler supports the little communist these days and Larkin credits him with a wide range of "accomplishments". (Uh, except reviving Northern Ohio as a national joke again I can't think of any.)