I've been working my way through the thread attached to Paul Hackett's diary, currently at the top of the recommended list. Kudos to Mr. Hackett for posting a diary here, and then actually making some comments. He's a busy guy, so we don't really have a right to expect him to hang around for hours and hours, and unfortunately it appears he had left to spend time with his family by the time commenter
Safford asked this simple question:
Major Hackett-
What is your position on same sex marriage?
What a great question. And, especially since we know that both Sherrod Brown and Mike DeWine have been on the right side of battles on same-sex marriage--no, that wasn't a typo, Mike DeWine has done the right thing at least once on a same-sex marriage proposal--it's high time that Paul Hackett come out and join Sherrod Brown and Mike DeWine and publicly state his opposition to consitutional amendments to prohibit two people in a committed, loving relationship to marry simply because they are members of the same sex.
It's hard to ever know what a politician really thinks, but we can substitute what may or may not be in their hearts with what they actually do on the campaign trail and, should they win, in office. In the cases of both Democratic Congressman Sherrod Brown and Republican incumbent Senator Mike DeWine, they've both had opportunity to do the wrong thing--like so many politicians, out of hatred, bigotry or just plain cowardice have done--and vote against treating gays and lesbians as second class citizens. But each one has done the right thing at least once. Brown has always been solid on GLBT issues, most significantly voting against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and the
Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA). DeWine, like all but 8 Democratic Senators, voted for DOMA, which was signed into law by Bill Clinton in 1996. But in 2004, when "gay marriage" was seen as a key wedge issue for Republican seeking to help George W. Bush win a national election for the first time, Republicans put an amendment to ban same-sex marriage (and possibly civil unions and domestic partner benefits for public employees) on the ballot in Ohio. DeWine had voted for cloture to bring the FMA up for a vote in the Senate, where presumably he would have voted for it (and against fair treatment for people who happen to love someone of the same sex). But
DeWine, to his credit, publicly opposed the amendment and called for its defeat.
I suspect Paul Hackett, like Sherrod Brown and Mike DeWine, was among the 38% of Ohio voters who voted against Ohio Issue 1. Mr. Hackett didn't answer Safford's question, but Hackett consultant Bob Brigham pointed Safford and others to this article, in which Hackett says
Gay marriage--who the hell cares? If you're gay you're gay--more power to you. What you want is to be treated fairly by the law and any American who doesn't think that should be the case is, frankly, un-American.
It's a good political answer, and while running in the deeply conservative and Republican OH CD-2, it was a savvy response: it showed his bluntness, and set it up as an issue about personaly liberty and equal treatment. But it still doesn't answer the Safford's question.
Since Mr. Hackett is running for the United States Senate, and since we know that Mike DeWine voted for gay marriage in Ohio after he voted against it in Washington--talk about flip-flops--it's time Paul Hackett made it clear that he would oppose any measure that would write descrimination against gays and lesbians into any constitution, Ohio's or that of the United States.
So, Mr. Hackett, since you're basing your campaign in part on your bluntness and willingness to talk about the issues in a refreshingly candid way, can you please tell us here at Daily Kos, and far more importantly, the voters of Ohio, that you would oppose any effort to prohibit the right of same-sex couples to enter in to a loving and committed relationship legally sanctioned by the state and affording those couples all the same rights of adoption, inheritance, hospital visitation and others of the roughly 1,200 rights and privileges available to heterosexual married couples but currently denied same-sex couples?
We'd love your candor on this issue.