http://www.drthrockmorton.com/article.asp?id=91
Warren Throckmorton, PhD
8/25/04
The headline in the August 25 USA Today read, “Cheney says he opposes marriage amendment.” What does this mean? Has the Vice President become an advocate for legal recognition of gay marriage?
One could conclude as much from reading Susan Page’s USA Today article and reading the press releases of some gay political groups. Indeed, Mr. Cheney is quoted as saying: “Freedom means freedom for everyone.” Steven Fisher, spokesman for the gay lobbying group, the Human Rights Campaign made Cheney’s remarks into an indictment of President Bush’s support for an amendment to the federal constitution defining marriage as requiring one each of both genders. Matt Foreman of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force gushed, “…at long last Vice President Cheney is standing up for real family values.” Is the Republican ticket about to implode over the issue?
Hardly. For one thing, Mr. Cheney did not say in his response to a questioner in Davenport, Iowa that he favored legally recognized gay marriage. According to a transcript released by the NGLTF, he did say, “People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to.” The truth is this freedom exists now and would not be hindered by a federal marriage amendment. However, Mr. Cheney followed that seeming endorsement of same sex marriage with another side of the legal relationship coin. “The question that comes up with respect to the issue of marriage is, what kind of official sanction or approval is going to be granted by government, if you will, to the particular relationship?”