By Kirsten Palladino
It’s no surprise that Michele Bachmann (pictured) is speaking out against gay marriage again, but now she’s telling gay students that they can marry, as long as it’s to someone of the opposite gender.
The Republican presidential candidate debated gay rights on Wednesday with two Waverly High School students in Waverly, Iowa, at a pizza restaurant, reports the Des Moines Register.
Jane Schmidt, the president of her school’s Gay-Straight Alliance, asked Bachmann what she would do as president to protect GSAs and support the gay community.
BACHMANN: Well, No. 1, all of us as Americans have the same rights. The same civil rights. And so that’s really what government’s role is, to protect our civil rights. There shouldn’t be any special rights or special set of criteria based upon people’s preferences. We all have the same civil rights.
JANE SCHMIDT: Then, why can’t same-sex couples get married?
BACHMANN: They can get married, but they abide by the same law as everyone else. They can marry a man if they’re a woman. Or they can marry a woman if they’re a man.
JANE SCHMIDT: Why can’t a man marry a man?
BACHMANN: Because that’s not the law of the land.
JANE SCHMIDT: So heterosexual couples have a privilege.
BACHMANN: No, they have the same opportunity under the law. There is no right to same-sex marriage.
JANE SCHMIDT: So you won’t support the LGBT community?
BACHMANN: No, I said that there are no special rights for people based upon your sex practices. There’s no special rights based upon what you do in your sex life. You’re an American citizen first and foremost and that’s it.
ELLA NEWELL, a junior at Waverly High School: Wouldn’t heterosexual couples, if they were given a privilege then, that gay couples aren’t, like given that privilege to get married, but heterosexual couples are given a privilege to get married?
BACHMANN: Remember every American citizen has the right to avail themselves to marriage but they have to follow what the laws are. And the laws are you marry a person of the opposite sex.
The Des Moines Register also reports that Bachmann “received applause for her comments throughout the exchange, and later one young man in the audience – Will Thomsen, of Cedar Falls – told Schmidt and Newell that Bachmann was a woman they should ’emulate.’
Iowa law, it should be noted, does in fact allow same-sex marriage, as do several other states in the union.”
Photo: Courtesy of michelebachmannforpresidentin2012.blogspot.com
