Yesterday, Charlie Crist announced on CNN that he supports a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. My post is on that news is here.
Last night, Crist’s campaign clarified those remarks, kinda. See, Charlie thought CNN’s Ed Henry was only asking him about Florida’s constitutional ban on marriage, not the amendment to ban same-sex marriage in the U.S. constitution. Charlie wanted us all to know he supports the state ban, not the federal ban. Now, why would Ed Henry ask a candidate for U.S. Senate a question about a federal ban? I mean, the Senate’s only voted on that very issue twice. Not buying it.
Plus, we already knew Crist supported a state ban, because he was vocal about that support in 2008 when Florida’s ban, Amendment 2, passed. Here’s what Crist said then:
Gov. Charlie Crist voted yes Tuesday on Amendment 2, which seeks to define marriage in the Florida’s Constitution as a union between a man and a woman. “I voted for it,” Crist said outside the polling place. “It’s what I believe in.”
It’s what he believes in.
Equality Florida has Crist’s statement after the CNN interview:
In an interview that aired today, I was not discussing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning same-sex marriage, which I do not support, but rather reaffirming my position regarding Florida’s constitutional ban that I articulated while running for Governor. In fact, the interviewer’s question reflected just that. I am fully supportive of civil unions and will continue to be as a United States Senator, but believe marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman.”
That’s ridiculous. Apparently, Crist believes it acceptable to enshrine bigotry in constitutions at the state level. And, as for that support of civil unions, well, here’s the language of Florida’s Amendment 2:
Inasmuch as marriage is the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife, no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized.
To be clear, “no other legal union” means civil unions. That’s what Crist voted for in November of 2008. So, Crist now says he supports civil unions, but supported his own’s state’s constitutional ban on civil unions.
Crist is a hypocrite. A big hypocrite. And, he’s opened himself up to the kind of media scrutiny that’s he been able to avoid for all these years. It’s time for the corporate media to apply the same standards they used to talk about Judge Vaughn Walker’s sexual orientation to Charlie Crist.
