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More on Sarah Palin and Gay Rights

Submitted by on Wednesday, 3 September 2008 – 10:08 AMNo Comment
Today was another big news day for Sarah Palin and LGBT issues in Alaska. 
(For a good summary of Palin’s record, see Alaskans Together on Palin’s LGBT Record.)
First I found this post with a cabinet member and Alaskan delegate to the RNC commenting on Gov. Palin’s opposition to gay rights, from The Gist, via Good As You:
Well, our pal Michelangelo Signorile is here to help us out. He is actually on site at the Republican convention, where he has obtained even more proof that the “pro-gay Palin” notion is just wishful thinking. This from Mike’s blog:

I went to the Alaska delegation and spoke with a woman who is in Palin’s cabinet. She assured me that Palin is not in favor of giving any rights to gays and didn’t want to give domestic partnership rights to government employees but that she had to veto the bill that would have rescinded such rights because of the Alaska Supreme Court ruling. So can we please cut this crap Log Cabin and the McCain campaign have been trying to put out: Palin only vetoed an antigay bill because she had to, by law. This woman, Annette Kreitzer, who serves in Sarah Palin’s cabinet in the Department of Administration, said, oh, well, it was the law — drat! — or something like that.

Then several people sent this post from the Washington Blade on Palin’s answers to three LGBT-related questions:
WASHINGTON – During her 2006 run for Governor, Sarah Palin filled out an Alaska Eagle Forum questionnaire that reveals even more about her stance and view on LGBT equality. 
One of the questions the conservative group asked her on the questionnaire was her views on expanding hate crimes laws. The question reads, “Will you support an effort to expand hate crimes laws?” 
Palin answered, “No, as I believe all heinous crime is based on hate.” 
Another question from the same survey asked, “Do you support the Alaska Supreme Court’s ruling that spousal benefits for state employees should be given to same-sex couples? Why or why not?” 
Palin answered, “No, I believe spousal benefits are reserved for married citizens as defined in our constitution.” 
And last, but not least, Palin was asked what her top three priorities, as regards to families, would be while Governor. 
Palin answered, “#2 – Preserving the definition of ‘marriage’ as defined in our constitution.”
I just received this quote about her church’s support of the anti-gay conference coming to Anchorage in ten days, from an article on TIME:
Churches proliferate in Wasilla today, and among the largest and most influential is the Wasilla Bible Church, where the Palins worship.
At the 11:15 a.m. Sunday service, hundreds sit in folding chairs, listening to a 20-minute sermon about the Book of Malachi and singing along to alt-rock praise songs. The only sign of culture warring in the whole production is an insert in the day’s program advertising an upcoming Focus on the Family conference on homosexuality in Anchorage called Love Won Out. The group promises to teach attendees how to “respond to misinformation in our culture” and help them “overcome” homosexuality.
Does Sarah Palin believe that homosexuality can and should be “overcome?” I’d love to hear her answer to that question.
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