The Daily Background

Fred Thompson’s stance on gay marriage and LGBT equality is considerably more nuanced than that of several of his fellow GOP candidates, and considerably more confusing.

After an initial embarrassing on-video foul-up in which he somehow managed to say that he believed the exact opposite of what he now says he believes, he has stated that he doesn’t approve of gay marriage when it’s allowed by a judge, but that he is okay with it when it’s allowed by a state legislature and governor. Here’s Fred explaining his odd stance on Meet The Press, Sunday:

Thompson has said of his proposed constitutional amendment which would prevent judges from ruling on marriage issues: “It’ll stop the process in its tracks because it’s all judge-made…No state legislature accompanied by a governor’s signature has gone down that road.” Thompson isn’t exactly right on this though, as I pointed out about a month ago:

Earlier this year, the legislature in my home state (New Hampshire) approved a very good civil unions package– not all civil unions are created equal– which extends most if not all rights guaranteed to married couples to same-sex couples. The law has been signed by New Hampshire’s moderate Democratic governor John Lynch (sometimes referred to as “Mr 70%” for his approval rating) and will go into effect in 2008. It’ll also allow New Hampshire to recognize full marriages performed in other states.

Additionally, there are similar pending measures in the state legislatures of California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, according to Wikipedia.

Technically, no state legislature has approved full marriage equality, but to say that no state legislature has “gone down that road” yet is totally wrong.

There you go, Fred. An example of a state legislature writing a law that recognizes same-sex marriages. Game, set, match. Care to revise your strange stance on the issue?

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