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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbySeptember 15th, 2010
In reading about the candidates vying for Mark Kirk’s old district, I ran across as clear a description between the social positions of a “Democrat” and a “moderate Republican” as I think I’ve seen:
The two candidates are facing off in the 10th Congressional District, portraying themselves as deficit and tax hawks who are more moderate on social issues.
Yet Dold and Seals noted their differences on abortion and gay rights.
Dold said he supports abortion rights, with restrictions. Dold backs parental notification for minors and opposes late-term abortions and tax money being spent on the procedure.
“Let me be clear, I’m pro-choice, while I may be more moderate than (Seals) is on this issue,” Dold said.
Seals said he supports abortion rights without Dold’s caveats and cited his endorsements from organizations such as Planned Parenthood.
Seals argued that limits on taxpayer-funded abortion and parental notification laws would force some women “to go to a back alley to care of this.”
On gay marriage, Seals supports it, calling it a “civil rights issue.” He also backs repealing military restrictions on openly gay soldiers.
Dold doesn’t support gay marriage, but said same-sex couples should have similar legal protections. Dold said he will support repealing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy if military generals agree it won’t impact combat operations.
Yes, there are many Democrats that do not support marriage equality and some Republicans that do. But I think that these two positions probably reflect what the voter who self-categorizes as “Democrat” or “moderate Republican” finds most comfortable.
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David
September 15th, 2010
Two straight men opining about two issues neither of them directly experience.
It is good that Dan Seals is so progressive, but let’s not forget the fundamental injustice of putting decisions about these two topics into the hands of people who will never experience the consequences, particularly bad, of opposition.
Emily K
September 15th, 2010
so Seals is correct on all the issues, calling for freedom of choice and the right to privacy, and Dold is in favor of using government to restrict civil liberties.
Lovely.
Why should I ever vote for any Republican? If this is the best “moderates” can do, forget it.
I’ve said it before I’ll say it again. I’d rather have a pol that’s apathetic towards gay rights than a pol that works actively to chisel away at them and prevent them from happening. This includes pols who support organizations that do these things.
Chris McCoy
September 16th, 2010
I agree with Emily on this.
While it’s nice to have both the Republican (Dold) and the Democrat (Seals) specifically state their choices in these sides – a feat that’s becoming more rare these days – these differences are still significant.
Moderate Republicans have come a long way – from overt hostility to offering crumbs from the dinner table of equality and liberty, but crumbs are still crumbs.
Dold’s stance on DADT can be summed up as:
I’ll support gays in the military as long as the people who have already stated they are for gays serving openly in the military state that they are for gays serving openly in the military.
When will Republicans admit that the Pentagon study is not “whether or not gays serving openly in the military can happen” but rather “how to make it happen with the least amount of trouble”
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