Today, in light of the discussion of whether President Obama would be finishing “evolving” on marriage equality — he did — his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, was asked about his view. Romney reiterated his opposition to same-sex marriage — as well as to civil unions “if they are identical to marriage other than by name.”
Well, now Richard Grenell, the short-lived Romney foreign-policy spokesman — has weighed in on today’s moves. In a statement provided to Metro Weekly, he writes:
President Obama’s decision to personally support gay marriage means he will be on the right side of history. He deserves credit for finally taking a stand in favor of equality. Nevertheless, it’s important to keep politicians from playing politics with a group’s civil rights. Democrats and Republicans continue to calculate the political implications of their positions, and the timing of the president’s announcement suggests his position is a political move too. While the president could have evolved when the Democrats controlled the House and the Senate or even yesterday before the swing state of North Carolina voted on the issue, Republicans should also remember that young people and many Christians believe in civil equality.
Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, is urging Catholics to pray, fast, and vote "no" on two ballot measures that would protect abortion rights and repeal the state's two-decade-old constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
Burbidge addressed the measures in a September 30 video posted to the Diocese of Arlington's YouTube channel, shortly after early voting began for the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
The first ballot measure, if approved, would guarantee access to abortion while allowing restrictions during the third trimester, "except when the patient's health is at risk or the pregnancy cannot survive."
“One of my first loves was the political arena,” says Jeremy Moss, the openly gay president pro tempore of the Michigan Senate and Democratic nominee for Congress in Michigan’s 11th District.
“I remember in my household growing up, we had the news on and watched Peter Jennings every single night,” he says. “I was in a household that was very on top of current and newsworthy events in our state and in our country. I literally -- and this is no joke -- was the first grader that could name every president in the order they served.”
Moss recalls being six years old and captivated by the 1992 presidential debate at Michigan State University, which gave it a local connection for him. He watched Bush, Clinton, and Perot “making a pitch to America,” each hoping voters would choose his vision for the country.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, a Catholic who is one of the high court's most doctrinaire conservatives, says in a new book that the court's decision extending marriage rights to same-sex couples was "perhaps the decisive point in our nation's turn against religious liberty."
Alito, who dissented in the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges case, made the claim in a speech at Catholic University of America (CUA) three years after the decision. The remarks were published in So Ordered, a collection of the justice's speeches that he says reflect his judicial philosophy and views of the United States.
