Steele said Monday he also thought the battle would be worked out at the state level — that states will be the “ultimate arbiters” of what constitutes a legal marriage.
So you could also title this story, Steele agrees with Cheney on same sex marriage!
Yes, Michael Steele agrees with Cheney on marriage—which is to say, both men oppose preserving marriage through a federal marriage amendment.
GQ MAGAZINE, MARCH 11, 2009
GQ: Let’s talk about gay marriage. What’s your position?
Michael Steele: Well, my position is, hey, look, I have been, um, supportive of a lot of my friends who are gay in some of the core things that they believe are important to them. You know, the ability to be able to share in the information of your partner, to have the ability to—particularly in times of crisis—to manage their affairs and to help them through that as others—you know, as family members or others—would be able to do. I just draw the line at the gay marriage. And that’s not antigay, no. Heck no! It’s just that, you know, from my faith tradition and upbringing, I believe that marriage—that institution, the sanctity of it—is reserved for a man and a woman. That’s just my view. And I’m not gonna jump up and down and beat people upside the head about it, and tell gays that they’re wrong for wanting to aspire to that, and all of that craziness. That’s why I believe that the states should have an opportunity to address that issue.
GQ: So you think it’s a state issue?
Michael Steele: Absolutely. Just as a general principle, I don’t like mucking around with the Constitution. I’m sorry, I just don’t. I think, you know, in a pluralistic, dynamic society as the one that we have, every five years you can have a constitutional convention about something, you know? I don’t think we should be, you know, dancing around and trying to amend it every time I’ve got a social issue or a political issue or a business issue that I want to get addressed. Having said that, I think that the states are the best laboratory, the best place for those decisions to be made, because they will then reflect the majority of the community in which the issue is raised. And that’s exactly what a republic is all about.
GQ: Do you think homosexuality is a choice?
Michael Steele: Oh, no. I don’t think I’ve ever really subscribed to that view, that you can turn it on and off like a water tap. Um, you know, I think that there’s a whole lot that goes into the makeup of an individual that, uh, you just can’t simply say, oh, like, “Tomorrow morning I’m gonna stop being gay.” It’s like saying, “Tomorrow morning I’m gonna stop being black.”
I have not heard Cheney state what he means by leaving it to the states. From his words of calling this an “equal rights” issue and saying that “everyone should have the freedom to make any union they want” I get the impression that Cheney is saying that he wants the Courts to decide and dictate it to the people. Someone should get him to clarify his position on this.