John Kerry and the gay vote. My take.

So here's my take on John Kerry and the gay issues.

Look, the guy ain't perfect on gay issues, by a long stretch. His vocal "opposition" to gay marriage sounds gratuitous. And his endorsement of the Massachusetts constitutional amendment was downright bizarre and glaringly self-serving - not to mention, really bigoted. Having said that, George Bush is a raging bigot. Or at the very least, he's more than happy to pander to raging bigots, which is pretty much the same thing.

Putting the marriage snafu aside, Kerry actually has a very good record on gay issues. He was one of only 15 Senators to vote against DOMA (though he probably regrets that now). He opposes the federal constitutional amendment. Supports civil unions. Supports adding sexual orientation to already-existing federal hate crimes law. Supports ENDA. Opposes Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

As for Bush? Where to begin? He actively supports, and is pushing, a federal constitutional amendment to make gays and lesbians second class citizens, and to take away many currently existing civil rights enjoyed by the GLBT community. He's appointed anti-gay nutjobs to the AIDS commission (e.g., Coburn). Some of his best friends are some of the worst anti-gay bigots on the planet: Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, and Gary Bauer. Bush tried to revoke job protections for gay federal employees. He had HHS launch an ongoing witch hunt of AIDS organizations. He's done all he can to put out the message that condoms are bad and that abstinence is the only, ONLY, method of stopping AIDS transmission. He fired a gay DOD contractor at the beginning of his administration, simply because the guy is gay. He opposes adding gays to already-existing hate crimes legislation. He hasn't even come out and said where he stands on civil unions. And, reportedly, he still hasn't even used the word "gay" once in 4 years.

So, the choice is between a guy who's 90% perfect on gay issues, and a guy who has a record that's probably 10% positive and 90% bigoted, including supporting a constitutional amendment that would permanently make us second-class citizens.

John Kerry ain't perfect by a long shot. And, if elected, he'll probably squirm on a lot of our issues, but he'll also probably do a lot of good. Two things we do know. John Kerry won't actively try to f*ck us like Bush has done for four years now. And George Bush won't be penning a pro-gay op ed for a gay Web site any time soon.