This is what's important: I want an America in which people are loved and respected and not an America which has outcasts and discrimination and different layers of being an American or a human being. People are who they are, and America's greatness is that we honor that and can respect it.
I think, you know, and I've said this before, I think marriage raises a different issue in the minds of a lot of people because of its deep religious foundations and institutional structure as the oldest institution in the world.
It is the oldest institution in the world older than country, older than our form of government, older than most forms of government. And people view it differently.
What's important to me is not the terminology or the status; what's important to me are the rights. The rights. That you shouldn't be discriminated against in your right to visit a partner in the hospital. You shouldn't be discriminated against in your right to leave property to somebody, if that's what you want. You shouldn't be discriminated against if you have a civil union relationship that affords you the same rights.
Now I think that's a huge step. There's never been a candidate for president who has stood up and said I think we should fight for those things. And you've got to progress. Even that, I take huge hits for.
And you know, I stood up on the floor of the Senate and voted against DOMA because I thought it was gay bashing on the floor of the United States Senate. I was one of 14 votes. The only person running for reelection who did that.
So I'm not going to take a second seat to anybody in my willingness to fight for what I think is right. But I do think you have to take things step by step, in a reasonable way, so you can achieve some progress and not go backwards."
-- Senator John Kerry, as quoted in the New York Blade.
Image from First Coast News.
