Thompson backs state bans on same-sex marriage

Thompson backs state bans on same-sex marriage

By GEORGE BENNETT
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 16, 2007
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — Cautioning against a federal solution to the controversy over gay marriage, Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson on Friday applauded a Florida group for "taking care of business at home" by seeking a statewide ban on same-sex marriages.
Thompson, who along with other GOP hopefuls has aggressively courted social conservatives before Florida's Jan. 29 primary, spoke to a Florida Family Policy Council dinner audience of more than 300.
The group is trying to get a referendum on the 2008 Florida ballot defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman and forbidding recognition of any other type of union "that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof."
Thompson said the controversy over the definition of marriage is "a totally judicially-made problem" and drew applause when he blasted judges who "make it up as they go along."
In a break with some social conservatives, Thompson does not support a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage. But he supports an amendment that would allow states to recognize such marriages only if they are approved by voters or legislatures rather than judges. Thompson's amendment would also specify that no state would have to recognize a same-sex marriage approved in another state.
While not specifically addressing the issue of a federal marriage amendment in his remarks Friday, Thompson told the group that the federal government is a "weak partner" that should not be relied upon.
"The best solution begins at home, and let's keep it that way," Thompson said. "That's why it's so important that people in this room and others that have joined you are doing what you're doing with this marriage amendment here in the state. You're not waiting for somebody else to take care of it. You're taking care of business at home where you are, where you live."
Thompson, who was endorsed this week by the National Right To Life Committee, told the audience that although he had a consistently anti-abortion voting record as a United States senator, his views on the issue were "abstract."
That changed, he said, when his wife became pregnant with their daughter, who is now 4. After seeing a sonogram of his daughter, Thompson said, his opposition to abortion "became a matter of the heart as well as the head."
Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, attended the event and said beforehand that he's not ready to endorse Thompson or any other candidate.
Thompson campaigned earlier Friday in Pensacola. He is scheduled to attend a fund-raising breakfast this morning in West Palm Beach.