John Kerry Challenger, Ed O'Reilly, Changes Stance on DOMA Repeal

Ed O'Reilly, Progressive Democrat Challenger to Senator John Kerry, Tells KnowThyNeighbor That He No Longer Supports the Repeal of the Third Part of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) But Now Supports Its Full Repeal Pointing To GLAD Attorney Jennifer Levi As the Reason For His Earlier Gradualist Positioning

BayWindows reporting on the John Kerry Re-Election Challenge by Dem Ed O'Reilly could have been alot better.  If KnowThyNeighbor had been asked for comment, BayWindows would have been told that Ed O'Reilly in a series of emails to Co-Director, Aaron Toleos, has stated on February 26, 2008, "For the public record, I am for the repeal of ALL of DOMA." 

O'Reilly who is hoping to beat Senator John Kerry in the primary this September also goes on to say, "The legislation (DOMA) was mean spirited and was meant to discriminate against people who are gay.  I will not stand for any "class" of people being discriminated against."  And, "people who are gay are not "less than" people who are not gay and our laws need to reflect this on every level."

Ed O'Reilly's comments were prompted by KnowThyNeighbor's Aaron Toleos who questioned O'Reilly for his YouTube video and his response to a Progressive Democrats of America questionnaire in which O'Reilly listed "Repealing Section 3 of DOMA" as one of his top issues.  Toleos asked of O'Reilly, "Are you really interested in repealing ONLY section three (of DOMA)?  That's the Hillary Clinton position and the less progressive position.  I am really looking for a candidate that is willing to repeal DOMA completely (the Obama & Edwards position)."

Ed O'Reilly really seems to "get it" regarding LGBT Rights and Equality for All and once he looked at DOMA, he understood that it was a bad piece of anti-gay, anti-American legislation and unequivally now stands for its FULL REPEAL.  But why was he first only for the Repeal of Part Three of DOMA, and seeming to be mimicing Hillary Clinton's position--one which confused so many LGBT leaders and pundits at the time?

O'Reilly points to Jennifer Levi at GLAD for allegedly having instructed his campaign to only focus on Section Three of DOMA.  In O'Reilly's email to Aaron Toleos he wrote, "After talking with people in the campaign issues group today, the reason we focused on Article 3 was the result of conversations the group had with Jennifer Levi, senior counsel at GLAD and the lawyer involved in the Goodrich decision.  She wanted us to focus on Article 3.  We believe in solidarity and working as a team and the issues group asked me to only focus on Article 3 as a result of Attorney Levi's request."

Now I have not yet heard from our sources or in the public realm of any definitive reasoning why focus should be solely on Section Three of DOMA as opposed to its Full Repeal.  KnowThyNeighbor has heard that there is a silence on many LGBT fronts regarding same-sex marriage until "after" the 2008 Presidential Election, but our community deserves to be told the truth.  Is this a tactical maneuver based on the issue at hand, Marriage Equality, and Federal Protections, or is this a way to throw Hillary Clinton a bone on her bid for the White House, the latter being a tactical means of support from the LGBT leadership to allow Clinton to publicly equivocate on a major LGBT issue, marriage, to appeal for and win the votes of those who are not with us on full marriage rights?

We need to get the bottom of this as we are owed answers.  There is one thing for sure here, however, aside from politics, maneuvers, tactics, pulling favors, jobs, loyalties, the White House etc... is the LGBT Community and what we are "supposed" to be fighting for.  Having a very pro-gay public figure such as Ed O'Reilly in a very public race against Senator John Kerry, making very public statements standing up for the full rights and protections of all of us is a great thing.  For him to have allegedly been told to hold back his "full" public support on one of our bigger issues, DOMA, is a very reckless thing.  Thank God that KnowThyNeighbor helped Ed O'Reilly to re-think his positioning

LGBT Leaders must stop directly and indirectly telling the members of our community and our staunch supporters that we indeed are a class of "less than" Americans.  Aaron Toleos is quoted in the March/April 2008 edition of Spirit Boston magazine in the Hetero Hero feature that "This is the time in history when everybody needs to be pushing forward."  And I would like to add that we need to note his choice of words.  "Pushing forward" not "shuffling."

Tom Lang, Director

Comments

[Pat Gozemba, Courting Equality]

Right on KTN. It is too bad that Bay Windows did not talk with KTN. Aaron Toleos is way out front on the O'Reilly campaign and shaping views. To his credit, O'Reilly seems like an open-minded thinker and not so much a calculating candidate.

An significant opinion worth noting in the Bay Windows article is this:

"MassEquality Campaign Director Marc Solomon was less impressed, saying that Kerry was 'parsing words' in his statement by not explicitly stating that he supported civil marriage rights. 'It’s time for John Kerry to state that he supports marriage equality, that he thinks it’s a good thing,' said Solomon.

Solomon also said that Kerry’s support of the Travaglini-Lees amendment during the 2004 constitutional convention was 'damaging' during the critical early legislative marriage debates."

Marc Solomon, usually quite judicious and conciliatory in his assessment of pols, does not seem to be cutting much slack for Kerry.

Marriage equality is the most challenging and talked about LGBT issue that has faced our nation in the years since the Goodridge decision (2003). Kerry is on the wrong side of the issue--still. AND he is running in MA where all voters know that marriage equality is the law. No thanks to him. What is his problem?

I don't have an answer for that, but as a voter and a grassroots activist I have an alternative candidate, Ed O'Reilly.

[Tom Lang]

Interesting points Pat. However, I will hold my applause for Marc Solomon until we figure out what exactly is his motive on this one. KnowThyNeighbor agrees with you wholeheartedly on John Kerry. My theory is that he is hoping to appear more toward "the right" so he may be considered for a vice-presidential nomination!!???

But regarding the Travaglini-Less amendment and historical accuracy, I question Marc Solomon with this..."why not enlighten the LGBT Community with the fact that Patrick Guerriero of the Log Cabin Republicans was pushing Civil Unions back in 2004, working with Mitt Romney on this while the rest of us were saying NO to Civil Unions.??" That fact made my life living hell in my Republican District (Senator Tarr and Rep Hill) when I was saying "no Compromise" and the Republican leges were being told that that was what the gays wanted.

Solomon should give us ALL the history of what went on back in 2004!!!

[Carisa Cunningham]

Hello, all.

I have a call in to Tom Lang but wanted to correct the record immediately for the blog-reading audience.

GLAD is categorically opposed to DOMA . Certainly something was lost in translation in the telephone tag from Jennifer Levi-to-Ed O'Reilly-to-Know Thy Neighbor.

I wasn't privy to any of these conversations, but suspect that someone may have mistaken a tactical discussion about where DOMA may be most vulnerable legally for a discussion about an overall position on this blatently discrminatory law.

Most LGBT legal groups (including GLAD) who would be support a legislative repeal of DOMA in its entirety, simultaneously recognize that a successful legal challenge would most likely focus on Section 3.

Finally, if there are still any same-sex married couples out there who have not filled out GLAD's survey on DOMA discrimination, please visit our website at www.glad.org and fill it out!

Many thanks -
Carisa Cunningham
GLAD