04.30.07
Giuliani Flip-Flops On Gay Marriage
GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani told a New York newspaper that he opposes the bill passed this week in New Hampshire legalizing same-sex civil unions.
A surprising reversal of his past statements.
“Mayor Giuliani believes marriage is between one man and one woman. Domestic partnerships are the appropriate way to ensure that people are treated fairly,” the Giuliani campaign said in a written statement published Friday in the New York Sun.
“In this specific case, the law states same-sex civil unions are the equivalent of marriage and recognizes same sex unions from outside states. This goes too far and Mayor Giuliani does not support it,” his campaign said in a written response to a question from the newspaper.
The three states that now legalize same-sex civil unions, Vermont, Connecticut and New Jersey, also each recognize unions performed in other states.
In 2004, the twice-divorced ex-New York mayor, who lived with a gay couple during one of his marital crises, told TV pundit Bill O’Reilly he thought that was just fine.
“I’m in favor of . . . civil unions,” the Sun quoted him as saying. “A civil partnership, domestic partnership, civil union, whatever you want to call it, and that takes care of the imbalance, the discrimination, which we shouldn’t have.”