Via Michael at eclecticism.
Statements like this one, made by Howard Dean in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, are part of the reason I support him.
Didn't you also say at the time that the whole idea of legally sanctioned gay relationships made you feel uncomfortable?Sure. Look, I didn't know anything about the gay community when I signed the civil-unions bill. I grew up in the same homophobic milieu that everybody else did. I was told the same thing about gay people that all heterosexuals were. And most gay people were told the same thing themselves -- by parents, ministers and everybody else. I was uncomfortable, and I said so. And I got a lot of flak for it. But I still thought it was the right thing to do.
You don't allocate civil rights by who makes you comfortable and who doesn't. I believe that civil unions was a masterful way of making sure that every gay and lesbian Vermonter was entitled to the same rights as everybody else -- without getting into the business about telling churches who they could marry and who they couldn't marry. I think what we did was the right thing. Others may do it differently.
Equal rights under the law is a fundamental part of everybody's thinking in America -- which is why I don't think civil unions is going to be a big issue in the election for me.
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