At a press conference last Friday, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders announced that he had an 11th hour change of heart about gay marriage.
In a highly emotional statement, with his wife by his side, Sanders said that he would not veto the City Council resolution supporting a legal fight to overturn California's prohibition on same-sex marriages. He had previously promised a veto but, instead, he signed it.
Sanders, a Republican former police chief, told reporters that he could no longer back the position he took during his election campaign two years ago. At that time he said that he favored civil unions but not full marriage rights for homosexual couples.
"Two years ago, I believed that civil unions were a fair alternative," he said at the press conference. "Those beliefs, in my case, have since changed. The concept of a 'separate but equal' institution is not something that I can support."
He fought back tears as he said he wanted his adult daughter, Lisa, and other gay people he knows, including some of his own staff members, to have their relationships protected equally under state laws.
Below is the full press conference as posted on YouTube.com.
This is one of the strongest, heartfelt statements against legalizing gay marriage discrimination I've seen and I hope that everyone in Arizona and Florida sees this video as well.
If you have a blog, please post this. It deserves to be seen by as many people as possible. If you don't have a blog, then email this article to as many friends as you can. Just click on the little white envelope below. We simply can't let a few religious zealots dictate public policy.
BTW - I found this video on a discussion thread at Feast Of Fools. Marc Felion and Fausto Fernós have one of the most entertaining, informative and often hilarious radio programs on the air. They're based in Chicago and the "Community" section of their website feastoffools.net posts daily discussion threads that run the gambit from incredibly informative to incredibly funny to incredibly touching. Check them out.
Correction...
In my haste to share this video, I misread the actual date. Had I caught that, I certainly would have made it clear in my post. The press conference was actually held Sept. 2007.
I do, however, still feel the same way about the event. It's relevance is even more acute today, less than six weeks away from the crucial vote on November 4th. It points out in a very dramatic, heartfelt way that when someone with honesty and integrity is confronted with the very real and very personal face of the gay marriage issue, they can't help but see Prop 8 for what it is - a discriminatory attempt to deny a whole class of people the same right to pursue happiness that everyone else has.
I do apologize for misreporting the date but I hope that doesn't, in any way, diminish the emotional power of the video itself.
Also, the Feast Of Fools broadcast is actually a podcast. You can find it at: Feast of Fools : Gay Fun Show
Thanks to NG and Rainbow Dragon 76 for letting me know about these errors.
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3 comments:
The Jerry Sanders speech/video occured a year ago.
Yes NG, you're right. According to the San Diego Union Tribune, the press conference happened Sept. 19th, 2007. In my haste to share this video, I misread the actual date. Had I caught that, I certainly would have made it clear in my post.
I do, however, still feel the same way about the event. It's relevance is even more acute today, just six weeks away from the crucial vote on November 4th. It points out in a very dramatic, heartfelt way that when someone with honesty and integrity is confronted with the very real and very personal face of the gay marriage issue, they can't help but see Prop 8 for what it is - a discriminatory attempt to deny a whole class of people the same right to pursue happiness that everyone else has.
I do apologize for misreporting the date but I hope that doesn't, in any way, diminish the emotional power of the video itself.
Thanks for pointing that out.
Feast of Fools is a podcast, not an radio show. You can download their shows for free at the iTunes store. You can search for Feast of Fools and it will show up. The full title of the show is Feast of Fools : Gay Fun Show. Hope you enjoy it.
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