Dean?s Gay-Marriage Nightmare
...The issue of gay marriage has been building since the U.S. Supreme Court decision struck down a Texas sodomy law last spring. Gay issues have now replaced abortion as the battleground wedge issue. Every court in the country eventually will rule that committed gay partnerships deserve the same legal protections as traditional marriage. But the inevitability of the social transformation does little to blunt its use as a divisive political issue. ?Bush won?t talk about it, but they?ll get the message out through groups like the Committee for the Defense of Marriage,? says a Republican Senate staffer. ?By the time Rove gets done with Howard Dean, he?ll have him performing gay marriages.?
...Freyne had been pressing Dean to state his position on gay marriage, which had been working its way through the courts. ?For three years you?ve ducked this,? he remembers saying at the press conference. ?Now that it?s been out of the courts for an hour, how do you feel??
?It makes me uncomfortable, the same as anybody else,? Dean replied. The remark made headlines and created friction with the gay community, but it didn?t signal a lesser commitment by Dean to finding a solution. His office in the state capitol was besieged by advocates and opponents, fielding at least 1,000 calls a day instead of the usual 50. Dean on occasion would pick up the phone without revealing it was he and check off the caller?s sentiments on a master list. There were death threats along with a menacing caller who said he knew where Dean?s children went to school. Dean did town meetings in the most conservative parts of the state, and the legislature held hearings on the history of marriage. (The Christian model of faithful monogamy only evolved in Western societies in the early 1700s.)
Still, Seven Days? Freyne believes he saw a different Dean emerge the day he took responsibility for the legislation. ?He looked like death warmed over at the press conference following the ruling,? Freyne said. ?Now he seemed to be saying, ?I ain?t dead yet?.?
...The issue of gay marriage has been building since the U.S. Supreme Court decision struck down a Texas sodomy law last spring. Gay issues have now replaced abortion as the battleground wedge issue. Every court in the country eventually will rule that committed gay partnerships deserve the same legal protections as traditional marriage. But the inevitability of the social transformation does little to blunt its use as a divisive political issue. ?Bush won?t talk about it, but they?ll get the message out through groups like the Committee for the Defense of Marriage,? says a Republican Senate staffer. ?By the time Rove gets done with Howard Dean, he?ll have him performing gay marriages.?
...Freyne had been pressing Dean to state his position on gay marriage, which had been working its way through the courts. ?For three years you?ve ducked this,? he remembers saying at the press conference. ?Now that it?s been out of the courts for an hour, how do you feel??
?It makes me uncomfortable, the same as anybody else,? Dean replied. The remark made headlines and created friction with the gay community, but it didn?t signal a lesser commitment by Dean to finding a solution. His office in the state capitol was besieged by advocates and opponents, fielding at least 1,000 calls a day instead of the usual 50. Dean on occasion would pick up the phone without revealing it was he and check off the caller?s sentiments on a master list. There were death threats along with a menacing caller who said he knew where Dean?s children went to school. Dean did town meetings in the most conservative parts of the state, and the legislature held hearings on the history of marriage. (The Christian model of faithful monogamy only evolved in Western societies in the early 1700s.)
Still, Seven Days? Freyne believes he saw a different Dean emerge the day he took responsibility for the legislation. ?He looked like death warmed over at the press conference following the ruling,? Freyne said. ?Now he seemed to be saying, ?I ain?t dead yet?.?
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