"Senator, sexual orientation—should a male who loves a male, and a female who loves a female, have all, all the constitutional rights enjoyed by every American citizen?" asked Bernard Shaw. He was moderating the vice presidential campaign debates broadcast nationally Oct. 5.
Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman had the first response, calling it "a very current and difficult question." He cited the Declaration of Independence "which says right there at the outset that all of us are created equal and that we're endowed, not by any bunch of politicians or philosophers, but by our creator, with those inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Lieberman explained that throughout our history "we have extended the orbit of that promise," which is why he has cosponsored the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and other legislation.
He supported "the traditional notion of marriage as being limited to heterosexual couples," but wanted to eliminate some of the legal inequities that result from gays and lesbians being denied the option of marriage.
"That's why I'm thinking about it and my mind is open to taking some action that will address those elements of unfairness, while respecting the traditional religious and civil institutions of marriage."
Republican Richard Cheney chose to emphasize freedom. "We live in a free society and freedom means freedom for everybody. ... People should be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to enter into. It's really no one else's business in terms of trying to regulate or prohibit." He said the next step, that of official sanction of these relationships in the same manner as conventional marriage, is "a tougher problem." Cheney pointed out that state law not federal regulates marriage, and "I don't think there should necessarily be a federal policy in this area." "I think different states are likely to come to different conclusions and that's appropriate. I think we ought to do everything we can to tolerate and accommodate whatever kind of relationships people want to enter into."
Jacob Weisberg, writing in the online political magazine Slate, said that Cheney "actually went further than Lieberman, who affirmed the idea of 'traditional marriage' as something that should remain closed to gay couples."
The Religious Right was quick to jump on Cheney's remarks. "As Nixon went to China, George W. Bush is going to Fire Island," wrote vehemently homophobic columnist Rod Dreher in The New York Post.
He called Cheney's response "a bombshell" to social conservatives. "Cheney telegraphed a dramatic retreat on the gay-rights front from the standard GOP line."
"Goodbye Defense of Marriage Act," said Dreher. "Can the ban on gays in the military be far behind? This explains the GOP's relative silence on the Boy Scouts issue."
"I can't begin to imagine how many hearts were broken last night in living rooms across America," said failed Republican presidential aspirant Gary Bauer. If his total vote count in the primaries was any indication, not many. Bauer continued by saying, Cheney's "answer is wrong no matter how you analyze it."
At least so far, the whining from social conservatives over Cheney's response has been ignored by the Bush campaign. Perhaps that is why so few have joined in the public criticism, they do not wish to risk alienating the men who might occupy the White House.