An interview with Patti Davis was in the New York Times yesterday. Things were said.
As Republican politicians wrestle with same-sex marriage, the daughter of a party icon — former President Ronald Reagan — said in an interview this week that she believes her father would have “been puzzled” by the political fuss and would have supported marriage for gay people.
I understand the need for kids to think the best of their parents, and she is basing this information on some anecdotal evidence—Reagan was friends with a lesbian couple, and he explained to Davis while watching a Rock Hudson movie that “some men are born wanting to love another man”—but I find it hard to believe that Davis really believes this. The president who refused to acknowledge the AIDS epidemic is going to be a gay marriage supporter? Come on. Reagan clearly was a believer in the common Republican sensibility that gay people are fine as long as they stay deep, deep in the closet and don’t make any noise.
And MLK Jr’s daughter doesn’t support gay rights. I’m not sure Reagan’s ghost can help with this one.
I don’t know, Paul. I have to assume that his daughter knew him a little better than you and I did.
And the fact that she quoted him as saying “some men are BORN [that way]” (as opposed to CHOOSING to be that way) lends a lot of credence to her theory.
Plus, he once published an editorial back in ’78 that included this line: “…homosexuality is not a contagious disease like the measles. Prevailing scientific opinion is that an individual’s sexuality is determined at a very early age and that a child’s teachers do not really influence this…”
Supporting gay marriage rights isn’t too much of a stretch once one acknowledges that being gay isn’t a choice. In fact, I think that that is probably the biggest sticking point for the anti-gay lobby: they don’t believe that people are actually born gay — they think that it’s always a deliberate, disrespectful, and gross choice.
(Wow…Never would’ve I thought that I’d ever be defending Ronald Reagan on a decidedly liberal website…I was barely old enough to tie my shoes when he was in office…The mind reels…)
As usual, Paul has his head up his ass.
Well said, h i t.
Senile People would probably support anything