Deep Divisions in GOP on Choice, Gay Rights
The GOP's Silent Majority
AlterNet.org
After a
recent poll determined that most Republicans support a woman's right to
choose, a pro-choice Republican bloc prepares for a turf war at the
upcoming convention.
Winding
through the crowds in Washington, D.C., during April's pro-choice
march, Jennifer Blei Stockman and dozens of fellow-travelers held up
simple white signs on wooden sticks saying, “I'm a Pro-Choice
Republican.”
“People
applauded us. They were so happy to see a Republican group there,” said
Stockman, a Connecticut resident. But then she admits, “We were the
oxymoron of the March.”
A
pro-choice faction might seem, at first glance, fated for outcast
status in a Republican Party that takes a hard line against abortion
and women's right to choose. Undaunted, however, the group is now
raising an even bolder banner and staking a greater claim on its
rightful place in the GOP. Begun in 1999, when three regional groups
with similar missions combined to form the Republican Pro-Choice
Coalition, the group last month renamed itself Republican Majority for
Choice, with the emphasis on “majority.”
(more)
Deep GOP Divisions On Anti-Gay Amendment
365gay.com
(Washington)
As the US Senate prepares to vote . . . on a proposed amendment to ban
same-sex marriage deep divisions are emerging within the Republican
Party on the need for the measure. Today the Senate Judiciary
Committee saw just how much some of the nation's most strident
conservatives oppose amending the Constitution even though they are
equally opposed to same-sex unions.
Massachusetts
Gov. Mitt Romney, whose state is the only one to recognize gay
marriages, told senators that unless the amendment is passed gay
marriages will spread like a “wildfire” across the country, eroding
traditional marriage and voiding more restrictive laws in other states.
. . .
But,
former Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) the author of the federal Defense of
Marriage Act told the committee that the Constitution shouldn’t be used
as a vehicle for banning gay marriage.
“We
meddle with the Constitution to our own peril,” Barr said. “If we begin
to treat the Constitution as our personal sandbox, in which to build
and destroy castles as we please, we risk diluting the grandeur of
having a constitution in the first place.”
(more)
Blog For Iowa 