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Nan Rich: All Floridians Should be Able to Marry the Ones They Love

Nan Rich, still the only announced Democratic candidate for Governor, is out front calling for marriage equality in Florida after the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic ruling striking down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), directly challenging Rick Scott’s position of continuing Florida’s ban.

As Governor, I will work to pass a new constitutional amendment that will allow Florida to join the rapidly growing ranks of marriage-equality states. Fairness and equality are core principles that define us as Democrats. We believe the civil rights of every individual must be protected regardless of race, creed, gender, age, or sexual orientation. I have always supported and fought for these principles and rights.
– Nan Rich

Quite the contrast to what Charlie Crist said in 2008 when he supported Florida’s constitutional amendment banning gay marriage – the same ban Rick Scott supports. At the time, Crist said “I voted for it. It’s what I believe in.” Crist is expected to challenge Rich for the Democratic nomination as part of his political transformation to get him back to the Governor’s mansion. Nan Rich meanwhile has a long track record defending Democratic principles and values, including equality.

More at the West Orlando News article here.

6 Responses to "Nan Rich: All Floridians Should be Able to Marry the Ones They Love"

DV says:

July 10, 2013 at 10:34 pm

Ms. Rich, does that right to marry whomever a person loves include uncles who want to marry their nieces or polygamists who want to marry two or more persons? Since the result of the majority’s decision in the Windsor case is based on the de-legitimization of all sources of morality which rely on “outdated,” backward, and “ignorant” biblical or religious notions of morality, we Floridians apparently won’t have to worry ourselves over our state constitutional amendment defining marriage as the legal union of one man and one woman. I predict that by the end of next year, Florida SSM advocates will be well on their way to attaining their real goal as described by lesbian activist and SSM supporter Masha Gessen: the complete elimination of the “patriarchal” institution of marriage by means of its “democratization,” first in the disguised form of SSM, followed soon thereafter by the inevitable legalization and legitimization of polygamy, incestuous marriage, child marriage or any other imaginable human social arrangement in which the parties can invoke a right to legal legitimacy simply by the claim of membership in a “conjugal relationship.” Since ancient religious texts and the standards of morality contained in them can no longer guide or inform our cultural institutions such as marriage, who are we to deny a marriage license to anyone since “love” or a claim thereto are henceforth the only requisites to marriage, and the doctrines of federalism on which this nation was founded no longer apply, what is to stop them? At this point one has to wonder if the federal courts will soon require the states to abolish all laws even remotely related to religion’s evil, hypocritical, and retrograde influences, laws for example, like murder, theft, assault, etc. I am sure you are familiar with the 19th century case of Reynolds vs. United States (1878?). That case is now apparently overruled by the holding in Windsor.

That homosexuals are “born that way” isn’t at all clear to University of Wisconsin Professor of Psychiatry, Terry S. Stein, M.D. Moreover, there’s never been a single scientific study proving that homosexuals are “born that way.” In 2012, Dr. Stein wrote and published a peer-reviewed article for medical and scientific journals, an article in which she stated in no uncertain terms that “there is no gay gene,” and that genetics is not and cannot be the “cause” of homosexual orientation in human beings. Dr. Stein further stated that human sexuality is far too complex to be attributed to any one cause or even any cluster of causes. In fact, she opined, we may never discover a cause of any kind for homosexuality because, among other reasons, sexual orientation is far too fluid over the human lifespan such that we could ever identify a cause or causes for the phenomenon of homosexuality. That leaves us with only one real “cause” of the phenomenon of homosexuality AND heterosexuality, and that is the behavior of a particular human being, over which both heterosexuals and homosexuals have undeniable free choice: to engage in sexual behavior or not and with whom to engage in that sexual behavior. Those are purely matters of choice. In any case, Dr. Stein’s paper is available on the internet. You need only Google it to find it.

If you reply to this post, please refrain from the habit of attempting to discredit me and my concerns by labeling me a bigot. As Dr. Stein said homosexuality is not genetic in origin, and therefore it is NOT like race, and neither was the case of Loving v. Virginia. I’d school you on that case if you are not aware of it, but it is in fact distinguishable from the Windsor case for several important reasons.

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1. Not Insane Former Floridian Who Left Because Of People Like This says:
  
  October 25, 2013 at 7:24 am
  
  Honestly, as an American, it’s irrelevant whether or not you think gay marriage is right or wrong, genetic or learner, an abomination or an aberration. Law abiding, tax paying American citizens are being denied a legal package of rights defined by the civil marriage contract, on the basis of distaste or religious belief. In a society defined by a separation of religion and state, hopefully with the understanding that distate is not a legal leg to stand on, gay marriage should be legal.
  
  To turn this around, why would one allow a person of faith to marry? They’re clearly not following the tenets of reason and the loyalty is obviously to the tenets of faith and not those of social democracy. And yet, wrong, just like couching homophobic discrimination behind religion and legal trickery is wrong.
  
  This action is already affecting Florida, where a significant brain drain to other outposts with more rational electorates is happening. Or, to put this another way, its not the weather in the Northeast that attracts talent : it’s the attitude, and the salary that’s a result of creating agglomerations of educated, rational members of the electorate and having all boats lifted.
  
  You want smart people to move to Florida? Or stay? Legalize gay.
  
  Reply
Believer of Acceptance & Equality says:

July 22, 2013 at 4:11 pm

Boy, that above comment is definitely by a very right wing person (probably an Attorney) who believes THEIR “judgement” of how everyone else should be should be the ONLY way. They went overboard in their comments about how Marriage Equality for the LGBT community will cause this, that and the other. We all need to “accept” people who aren’t exactly as we are. Your comment about proof that gays, etc. are not BORN that way… what about (just as an example) Chaz Bono who from the age of 3 or 4 KNEW they did not feel like a girl, and felt inside they were a BOY. There are a lot of people like that – people who were BORN being different from what “you” think is the “only” way that’s right. I believe things ARE GENETIC, and whatever your Dr. Stein said is ONE Professor’s opinion.

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DV says:

July 22, 2013 at 10:18 pm

Yes, that’s right, label and smear me as a “right-winger” Ms. Rich. That’s typical of far left lunatics, who stop at nothing to get their way. No smear, slander, or lie is too far for the “progressives.” I prefer to be called a conservative, but of course, if you insist on the absurdities, go ahead a paint me as some kind of goose-stepping troglodyte or religious fanatic. In any case, that isn’t MY judgment. It’s the judgment of every human culture since antiquity and before into prehistory. What about my statements indicated that I, or those who believe as I do, somehow seek to force or determine how everyone else lives. I haven’t for one moment suggested that homosexuals or lesbians have no right to have a sexual relationship or to fall in love with someone of their own unique choosing. I already do accept them just as they are in the sense of my obligations as a citizen. What we reject is their right to destroy a cultural institution of the last 3000 years on the fanciful and false premise that it will bring them some kind of equality. It’s a false equality. The idea of using SSM as a means to destroy western civilization, “the capitalist” nations, didn’t originate with Masha Gessen as she would no doubt readily admit. It actually began in more modern times with Antonio Gramsci, who was the first to propose the democratization of cultural institutions, church, family, marriage, etc. as a means of flattening those cultural institutions that were so critical to the maintenance of those societies. Gramsci, if you didn’t know, was a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary who introduced the idea of attacking the cultural institutions first as the surest and quickest way of destroying capitalist societies. Karl Marx regarded bloody and violent as “inevitable” in much the same cavalier way you, no doubt, believe that human beings must be stripped of all sex and gender differences in the name of “equality.” Moreover, we conservatives don’t regard ALL forms of equality or change as inherently or self-evidently good. In fact, I dread to see Ms. Gessen’s sexless, genderless, and absolutely “equal society,” for the same reason our forebears in the English Civil War feared the Levelers. They too demanded an absolute equality, and that was to be accomplished by the abolition of the right to property ownership altogether, much like the closeted neo-Marxist who inhabits the White House today. I could say a lot more on this subject, but you’re not worth it. Go back and join Al Sharpton, the criminal with a badge known as the Attorney General, Eric Holder, and Barack Obama in the race-baiting game. I’m sure you’re just as good at that as you are in smearing individuals based on their sociological group identity. Count me out of your politics of race and gender identity, hate, envy, and racialism. Count me out, but be my guest and go for it. Perhaps you can do as well as the President has in deceiving the people as to what you really believe.

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1. Not Insane Former Floridian Who Left Because Of People Like This says:
  
  October 25, 2013 at 7:27 am
  
  Well, good thing your rant revealed how rational you are!
  
  Reply
Fred says:

August 2, 2013 at 2:09 pm

Does Ms Rich support making alimony limited in duration? Governor Scott vetoed alimony reform bills even though they had 85 % support of the legislature. The bill also included mandatory joint custody so children can have access to both parents after a divorce. Does she support this or will she be an advocate against fathers in the family court as most liberal women in The democrat party are.

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