A second look

I was very disappointed in John Edward when he said that he could not support same-sex marriage. He seems to be fairly good on a number of the issues, but this issue is of importance to me and I had hoped for a better answer from him.

He cleared up some of the concerns with his answer tonight, and let me explain why.

I cut my activists teeth in Florida, during the late 1980's, early 1990's. During that time we had an excellent governor, Lawton Chiles. Chiles received strong support from women's groups, even though it was known that he was personally opposed to abortion. He made a vow to the women in the state that he not impose his personal views on women in Florida, that he would never sign any bill that would take away a woman's right to make this decision for herself. He never did, and he enjoyed strong support from feminist groups.

Edwards said tonight that while he personally cannot embrace "marriage" for same-sex couples, he would not impose his views on everyone. His quote on CNN.com is:

"The honest answer is I don't [support gay marriage]," said Edwards. "But I think it's wrong for me as the president of the United States to use my faith to deny anyone their rights."

It's still not as far as I would like to see him move on this, but it's a good start.