UPDATE:
We're down to the Final Four! Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) announced his support for gay marriage on Friday, just minutes after Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) did the same. Only four Democrats in the Senate have not come out for marriage equality. His full statement, posted on Facebook:
“In recent years, our country has been involved in an important discussion on the issue of marriage equality. While serving in the House of Representatives, I had the opportunity to act on a core belief of mine: we are a stronger country when we draw on the strengths of all Americans. I voted to repeal ‘don't ask, don't tell’ and was an original supporter of the bill that would make it illegal to discriminate against someone in the workplace because of their sexual orientation. It is also for that reason that I oppose amending either Indiana’s or our nation’s constitution to enshrine in those documents an ‘us’ and a ‘them,’ instead of a ‘we.’ With the recent Supreme Court arguments and accompanying public discussion of same-sex marriage, I have been thinking about my past positions and votes. In doing so, I have concluded that the right thing to do is to support marriage equality for all.”
And then there were six. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson just became the latest high-profile politician to change his mind about same-sex marriage, saying "if The Lord made homosexuals as well as heterosexuals, why should I discriminate against their civil marriage? I shouldn't, and I won't." That leaves a mere half dozen Democratic senators who haven't yet announced their support for marriage equality: Joe Manchin, Heidi Heitkamp, Mary Landrieu, Joe Donnelly, Mark Pryor, and Tim Johnson. If you're interested, the Huffington Post has gathered each of these senators'most recent statements on the issue; as you can see, four have switched sides in little over a week.
No comments:
Post a Comment