Bloomberg: “I cannot defend it”

[tomm2thumbs]

Full title: 'Bloomberg States Case, Emphatically and Personally, for Same-Sex Marriage'

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, declaring that “near equality is no equality” for gay couples, on Thursday delivered an uncharacteristically forceful and sweeping speech in which he called on New York to “lead the American journey forward” by legalizing same-sex marriage this year. In a speech on an issue that is roiling the State Legislature, Mayor Bloomberg declared that he could “see the pain that the status quo is causing — and I cannot defend it.”

-snip-

In his speech, Mr. Bloomberg seemed at times to be speaking directly to the handful of lawmakers, most of them Republican state senators, whose vote will prove decisive on the issue this legislative session. He warned them that opposing same-sex marriage would place them in league with those who opposed civil rights measures in the past. “On matters of freedom and equality, history has not remembered obstructionists kindly,” he said. “Not on abolition. Not on women’s suffrage. Not on workers’ rights. Not on civil rights. And it will be no different on marriage rights.”

-snip-

Mr. Bloomberg, a Republican turned independent, argued that supporting same-sex marriage was entirely consistent with conservative principles of limited government and personal liberty. Conservatives, he said, “believe that government should not stand in the way of free markets and private associations — including contracts between consenting parties.” He added, “And that’s exactly what marriage is: a contract, a legal bond, between two adults who vow to support one another, in sickness and in health.”



full story at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/27/nyregion/mayor-bloomberg-states-case-for-same-sex-marriage.html?_r=1&hp

[ejpoeta]

1. it is entirely consistent with real conservative values.... small government

means you stay out of people's personal business... that means no legislating religious beliefs.

[Viking 1]

2. Good for him

Recced.

[tomm2thumbs]

3. posted video and link to transcript

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x586720

it was actually helpful to have it playing (listening to it) while not watching the video as the words seems to resonate more than the podium visuals

[Snoutport]

4. I keep a box of Thank You notes JUST for politicians who do the right thing

Mayor Bloomberg just earned one.