Palin on rights for same-sex couples

As we are starting to get to know Sarah Palin, it seems wise to look more closely at her stances on important issues of the day.  In last week's installment we learned that Palin opposes abortion in all cases except when the mother is about to die and aborting the baby is the only way to save the mother's life.  Yes, Palin believes rape and incest pregnancies should be carried to term.  No, she hasn't wavered on that stance.  Yet.

These extreme views on abortion rights (or the lack thereof) are consistent with Palin's extreme views on other social issues being debated in America today.  One of the most striking areas of progress in America over the last ten years has been gay rights.  While most Americans continue to oppose gay marriage, recent polling shows that resistance is decreasing.  Furthermore, support for the civil rights of Gay Americans is increasing (note: same polls).  The vast majority of Americans now support giving Gay Americans full citizenship rights, including the right to civil unions with a gay partner.

But not Sarah Palin.  In December, 2006 the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that the state government of Alaska had to offer health and retirement benefits to the same-sex partners of state employees.  Palin agreed to enforce the law but made her displeasure known publicly:

"We believe that we have no more judicial options to pursue. So we may disagree with kind of the foundation there, the rationale behind the ruling, but our responsibility is to proceed forward with the law and abide by the constitution," Palin said.

But ultimately, she said, she supports denying those benefits through a constitutional amendment, if that's what the public wants.

And then she went further:

On Wednesday, as news reporters looked on, Palin signed a bill that calls for an advisory vote on whether the Alaska Constitution should be amended to ban such benefits.

When the State Legislature passed a bill banning the state from granting the benefits to their employees, Palin did the right thing and vetoed that bill, stating that a signature would have been illegal.  But she continued to voice her support for the advisory vote, which took place in April of 2007:

Voters were asked whether the Legislature should pursue a constitutional amendment that would bar benefits such as health coverage for gay or lesbian partners of public employees.

Just over 53 percent of the voters supported the ballot measure, telling lawmakers to go forward with an amendment. Nearly 47 percent opposed it. Nothing else was on the state ballot in the advisory election, which cost $1.2 million. About 23 percent of registered voters turned out.

That's right, folks: $1.2 million for a vote that was an essentially meaningless political ploy to garner support for overturning the rights of same-sex couples.  When only 53% of Alaskans voiced support for the amendment Palin let the issue drop.

Conclusions:  Palin did the right thing with her veto of the bill that would have forbidden the Alaska State Government from implementing the court's decision.  But she really had no choice legally and her obvious opposition to the ruling, coupled with her support of a meaningless advisory vote (to the tune of $1.2 million) shows the her viewpoint on civil rights is far from the mainstream in this country.  Furthermore, one has to ask why Alaska, and its brand-new governor, bother to waste tax payer dollars and legislative time trying to pass a consitutional amendment denying rights to state employees.  This is obviously a step that shows how far out of the mainstream Palin and the Republicans in Alaska are.

Next Week:  Hunting!  As the season of sitting for hours in a tree 100-200 yards away from your car waiting for a helpless animal to walk along so you can kill it approaches, we'll take a look at Palin's love of aerial wolf hunting!  Yes, here's a woman who enjoys nothing more than killing wolves from a helicopter while, no doubt, listening to Steven Curtis Chapman.  Should be fun!