Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

First lady weighs in on gay marriage

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published May 15, 2006

WASHINGTON - Some election-year advice to Republicans from a high-ranking source who has the president's ear: Don't use a proposed constitutional amendment against gay marriage as a campaign tool.

Just who is that political strategist? Laura Bush.

The first lady told Fox News Sunday that she thinks the American people want a debate on the issue. But, she said, "I don't think it should be used as a campaign tool, obviously."

"It requires a lot of sensitivity to just talk about the issue - a lot of sensitivity," she said.

Early next month, the Senate will debate legislation that would have the Constitution define marriage as the union between a man and a woman, Majority Leader Bill Frist said on CNN's Late Edition.

President Bush supports the amendment, but Vice President Dick Cheney does not. Cheney's daughter, Mary, is a lesbian and has been speaking out against the marriage amendment as she promotes her book, Now It's My Turn.

Mary Cheney wrote that she almost quit working on the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2004 because of Bush's position on gay marriage.

"It is writing discrimination into the Constitution, and, as I say, it is fundamentally wrong," she said.

But Frist said he would defend the amendment even to Dick Cheney.

"I basically say, Mr. Vice President, right now marriage is under attack in this country," Frist said on CNN. "...We need an amendment to come to the floor of the United States Senate to define marriage as that union between one man and one woman."

[Last modified May 15, 2006, 08:18:53]