Healey backs proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage
But opposes change in GOP platform
Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey endorsed a proposed gay-marriage ban yesterday, but said the state Republican Party should not change its platform to call for a ban because Republicans are split on the issue.
''I don't think this is a partisan issue. I think this is an issue that cuts across Republicans and Democrats," Healey said yesterday, on the second anniversary of the Supreme Judicial Court decision that made same-sex marriage legal.
Healey, who intends to run for governor if Mitt Romney decides not to seek reelection, said that she would vote for the gay-marriage ban if it appears on the ballot. But she also said she would work to authorize civil unions if the ballot initiative passes in 2008.
The Globe reported Friday that Massachusetts Republican Party officials began asking party members in September to help collect signatures for the petition drive to put the gay-marriage ban before voters in 2008. GOP officials say the effort does not reflect a decision by the party to endorse a ban on same-sex marriage, but was intended to involve rank-and-file Republicans in the political process and to identify motivated voters and their concerns.
Yesterday Healey and Romney recommended that the state party's platform encourage a public referendum on matters of dramatic social importance such as legalizing gay marriage, rather than allowing appointed judges to make the decision. But they did not call for the party platform to endorse a ban.
Currently, the state party platform does not mention same-sex marriage or voter initiatives. By contrast, the Republican National Committee platform supports President Bush's call for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and says, ''We believe that neither federal nor state judges nor bureaucrats should force states to recognize other living arrangements as equivalent to marriage."
Yesterday, Romney suggested that the GOP put language in the platform endorsing a voter referendum on certain issues.
''I do believe that both parties should have in their platform a preference for allowing citizens to make decisions of this nature, rather than a one-person majority of the court," Romney said. ''I believe that major changes in our constitution and the rights in the commonwealth should be made not by a judicial body, but by the people, and believe that individuals should have this choice."
The state Democratic Party has voted to endorse gay marriage in its platform. The national Democratic Party does not go that far, but calls for equal benefits for gay couples and condemns a nationwide constitutional ban on gay marriage, favoring decision-making by the states.
The state Republican committee has not voted on the issue, leading some in the gay rights movement to criticize the committee's involvement in the petition drive.
''The people have the right to a vote, but the state committee doesn't have a right to vote?" said Tom Lang, the director of KnowThy Neighbor.org, which supports gay marriage and has posted the names of petition signers on its website.
Healey spoke to the Globe yesterday after appearing at an event for National Adoption Day. Asked whether she supported adoption by gay couples, she said: ''I believe that there's no difference whatsoever. I believe that gay and lesbian couples can be loving and good parents. I am very grateful to those who choose to adopt children."
Healey also said that many Democrats oppose gay marriage and that Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, has been on both sides of the debate.
Reilly spokesman David Guarino said the attorney general who once had a ''traditional view of marriage" opposes the ballot question to ban gay marriage. ''Like the rest of us, he has seen that the sky hasn't fallen," Guarino said. ''He feels as though things are working perfectly here in Massachusetts."
Deval L. Patrick, a Democratic candidate for governor, said he has no reservations about the existing gay marriage provisions and criticized the Republican Party for emphasizing ''what divides us, rather than what brings us together."
''I think the SJC got it right, because all they did was affirm the principle that citizens come before their government as equals," he said.
Stephanie Ebbert can be reached at ebbert@globe.com. Raphael Lewis of the Globe Staff contributed to this report. 