Now Harold Ford Jr. Backs Gay Marriage

Now that he is running for the U.S. Senate in New York, against a candidate that support equal rights for LGBT people, Harold Ford Jr. Backs Gay Marriage


"In what will likely be read as another sign of his interest in running against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in this year's Democratic primary, ex-Tennessee Rep. Harold Ford Jr. publicly said for the first time that he was in favor of same-sex marriage.
"He supports gay marriage, in the interest of fairness and equality," Ford spokesman Davidson Goldin told The Post.
Ford backed up that statement himself this morning on the "Today Show."
Host Matt Lauer asked, "So you're now in favor of same sex marriage?"
"Civil unions and same-sex marriage, yes," Ford said.

Ford also said there's a "fiction" in language between civil unions and same-sex marriages, and that he now supports gay nuptials because it's the best way to keep equal benefits flowing.
Saying he supported civil unions when he ran for Congress in Tennessee in 1996, Ford said, "My support for fairness and equality existed long before I moved to New York."
Asked by host Matt Lauer if it was a "change" in position, he invoked Chuck Schumer and Bill Clinton, saying:
"Maybe in the language. But I'm a believer that benefits should flow to same sex partners and if indeed the fiction of the language, the title, should be changed, much like Chuck Schumer who changed his mind on it and Bill Clinton's evolved, I'm of the opinion now that nothing is wrong with that."

This is the same Harold Ford Jr. who wan for the Senate in TN by trying to go to the right of his GOP opponent Bob Corker, and spent much of his campaign trail attacking same-sex marriage to win the TN redneck vote. To great applause, from one barnyard haystack to another, he preached against gay marriage, and proclaimed the gospel of "family values"

Harold Ford Jr.
"I will continue to be pro-family, including supporting a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, without taking away the civil rights of gays and lesbians."
Harold Ford Jr., "My Faith as My Guide" on HaroldFordjr.com

I welcome HRJ's change of heart, now I think he owes gays and lesbians in Tennessee an apology.