Fong on Gay Marriage "... Iowans deserve the right to vote on a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as one man and one woman ..."

In my previous post I wanted to be certain that readers of this blog understand that I am a supporter of Christian Fong. I am not an official spokesman for Fong campaign but I am a committed supporter. Therefore, when you read this blog you should keep that in mind.

I read the post on the Iowa Republican about Christian's interview with KCRG's Beth Malicki. The post was titiled:

Fong on Gay Marriage: “We can’t label people as an issue … condemn them for what they hold so deeply.”

Of course the implication is that Christain supports gay marriage, the post also noted that I resigned from the SCC to support Christian. Let me be clear on this, Christian Fong is not a supporter of Gay marriage (nor am I). If you listen to the discussion you will find that he supports a constitutional amendment defiing marriage as between one man and one woman and believes that Iowans deserve the right to vote on the issue. These beliefs are precisely in line with my own.

This is a transcript of the entire segment on gay marriage:

Malicki: "If you're for the next generation, how can you speak out on things and speak out against things like gay marriage when many young people in Iowa embrace the idea of one man and another man loving each other or one woman and another woman loving each other and you have been vocal about being against that."

Fong: "It certainly is the topic of the day. A lot of Iowans care about this. So, let me be clear where I stand.

"I believe that Iowans deserve the right to vote on a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as one man and one woman it is a constitutional amendment that I would personally support."

"At the same time, we can't ever label people as an issue. We can't label them as a problem. I am not embarrassed about where I stand on that issue. But at the same time, I don't look across at anybody that has a different view. I don't condemn them for what they hold so deeply, and I invite everyone to the table. Let's keep talking about this is Iowa. In Iowa, we are big enough to deal with tough problems, with tough topics and do it in a respectful and honoring way. That encourages dialog rather than perpetuating an I'm right you're wrong style of politics, I'm not about that."

Here is the full video of the segment.

Many Iowans (including me) care deeply about the issue of gay marriage. But Iowans are concerned about other issues as well, schools, crime, the economy. In order to both win the governorship and govern effectively our candidates must be able to address all the issues that concern Iowans.