All Democrat presidential candidates say they favor gay marriage

All the democrats running for President support giving gay and lesbian couples the same legal rights those married as man and woman receive. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry praises the court in his state that’s ordered the Massachusetts Legislature to legalize same-sex unions.Kerry says it’s a matter of equal protection under the law. Kerry says the court has drawn a distinction, though, between church-sanctioned marriage and what the state has to provide in rights. He says the term marriage gets in the way of what is really being discussed — like, for example, ensuring homosexuals get the right to visit their loved one in the hospital. Former Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun, the first black woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate, says it’s a civil rights issue. Braun says her aunt married a white man in the 1950s, a marriage that was illegal at the time in many states. Braun says letting people marry people from a different race is no different from letting people marry people from the same sex. Braun says our society is built on families, and letting same-sex couples for a families provides stability within communities. Braun says “the panderers to fear and division” will try to use gay marriage as a “wedge issue” in the coming election. Braun says most Americans believe it’s “no skin off my back” if someone marries someone they love, and that someone happens to be of the same gender. Retired general Wesley Clark says he welcomes the Massachusetts Court decision which has directed that state’s legislature to legalize same-sex unions. Clark says it is a civil rights issue and everyone should be treated equally. Clark says if it’s your child, and you love them, you want them to have the same rights, regardless of their sexual orientation.Clark says people who want same sex relationships should have exactly the same rights as those in “conventional” marriage relationships. He says that’s “essential in marriage today.” Reverend Al Sharpton says at one time, American slaves were not allowed to marry. Sharpton says to say gay and lesbian couples should not be allowed to marry is to say they’re “less than human.” North Carolina Senator John Edwards says it’s about treating same-sex couples with the same dignity and respect as other Americans. Edwards says he has stressed the importance of equality for all Americans and bringing America together to “embrace and lift up everybody.” Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean signed a bill while he was governor which made “civil unions” for gays and lesbians legal in his state.