Republican Attorney On Marriage Equality: Conservatives Should Recognize That Marriage Of Any Kind Is In Line With Party's Values
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Dom Giordano spoke with attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT.
Olson and Boies collaborated to successfully challenge California's ban on same-sex marriage, and they continue to work for marriage equality.
Olson explained why he fought so hard against Proposition 8, which prohibited gay marriage in California.
Olson and Boies On Marriage Equality
"The consequences were damaging and hateful and very painful for people who were gay and lesbian, and we wanted, from a legal standpoint, to overturn that, to help explain to the American people how damage is done by that form of discrimination," he said.
Boies compared the right to marry to other rights that Americans feel are an essential part of our nation.
"One of the things about the Constitution is that it we say that there are certain fundamental rights that no majority can take away…the right to marry is so fundamental that no state majority can take that away. There are a lot of people who don't agree with freedom of the press or freedom of speech. I don't think you'd want to put those kind of rights to vote, state by state," he said.
Olson, a Republican, hoped other Republicans would be open to the argument that he and Boies are trying to make.
"What I want is for the Republican Party to be respectful of the rights of the individual citizens and to realize that the right to marry is a right of association and it's a right of liberty and it's a right of privacy. Conservatives should recognize that two loving individuals who wish to marry one another and form a part of our community -- that is a conservative value. People want a stable relationship. They want to be accepted. They want to live by all of the rules that all of the rest of us do," he said.
Boies and Olson will be appearing together tomorrow night at the National Constitution Center to discuss the book they co-authored, Redeeming the Dream: The Case for Marriage Equality. Tickets are available through the National Constitution Center.
