The Right Hook

With no foreign policy credentials, next to no national profile, and having served in the statehouse for less than two years, Palin has such a thin record -- both legislatively and in terms of public statements -- that it’s difficult to predict just what sort of vice president she might soon become. As for issues affecting gay Americans, there’s only a handful of legal decisions -- made early in her tenure as governor -- that can help us divine where she stands.

By James Kirchick

An Advocate.com exclusive posted September 24, 2008

When John McCain announced Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate in late August, the response was near-universal astonishment. With no foreign policy credentials, next to no national profile, and having served in the statehouse for less than two years, Palin has such a thin record -- both legislatively and in terms of public statements -- that it’s difficult to predict just what sort of vice president (or, given McCain’s advanced age, president) she might soon become. As for issues affecting gay Americans, there’s only a handful of legal decisions -- made early in her tenure as governor -- that can help us divine where she stands.

A self-described “hockey mom,” hunting enthusiast, and evangelical Christian, Palin has been reared in the political culture of Alaska. It’s a state whose politics is defined at times by a libertarian, live-and-let-live approach that fits naturally with frontier existence and at times by a more intrusive, religiously grounded conservatism brought by the Southerners and Westerners who swarmed the state in the 1970s and ’80s for jobs in the booming oil industry. In 1996 the Alaska state legislature passed a law stipulating that marriage can exist only between people of opposite genders. A gay couple sued the state on the basis that the measure was discriminatory. Two years later, 68% of voters approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, making Alaska the first state to amend its constitution this way.

Palin, then mayor of Wasilla -- a city about 40 miles north of Anchorage with a population of less than 10,000 -- supported the marriage amendment, as did most of the state’s politicians. And she continued to solidify her reputation as a traditional, “family values” conservative as her political career took off. Running for governor in 2006, she announced her opposition to a 2005 Alaska supreme court ruling that ordered the state government to offer health and retirement benefits to the domestic partners of its employees; her Democratic opponent, former governor Tony Knowles, supported the ruling. In a questionnaire provided by the Alaska chapter of the Eagle Forum, the socially conservative lobbying organization founded by Phyllis Schlafly, Palin listed “preserving the definition of ‘marriage’ as defined in our constitution” as one of her highest priorities.

Palin won the gubernatorial election comfortably -- and one of her first acts in office was to veto a bill that would have blocked those court-ordered benefits for same-sex couples. The move is now cited as an example of her “inclusiveness,” but she made it only under the advisement of the attorney general, who said the bill violated the state constitution’s equal protection clause. In a statement released in conjunction with the veto, Palin made clear her continued opposition to domestic-partner benefits: “Signing this bill would be in direct violation of my oath of office,” she said, emphasizing that her rejection of the bill was purely legalistic and ought not to be taken as a sign of any newfound support for gay rights.

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Keywords: 2008 Election

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Reader Comments

These comments are reproduced as written by visitors to this Web site. They have not been edited for content, grammar, or spelling. The viewpoints appearing here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of advocate.com, The Advocate, or its affiliates.

Name: Jackson steele
Date posted: 2008-09-27 4:50 AM
Hometown: Anchorage, Alaska

Comment:

Beware the experience argument. Experiance can be a cancer on the ability to effect change and think strategically. Has anyone been paying attention for the past eight years? McCain is a good man, but this is not his time nor for all his experience is he able to deal with a very much younger and changed world. I also agree the Green Party is good but this is a two party country and every time too many people vote for the third or fourth we end up with another Bush/Cheney nightmare administration. Let McCain's experience shine a light in the house of the people and for the sake of democracy and diversity, don't let Palin anywhere near power. She is a very dangerous theocrat and "not blinking" is not a virtue nor is it prudent in a complex world.

Name: Joseph
Date posted: 2008-09-27 1:35 AM
Hometown: Montgomery, AL

Comment:

(cont from below) But, again, Palin is NOT running for President. She's running for the #2 slot. There's no rational reason for all this premature talk of McCain's imminent demise to leave her in charge of the country. Obama hasn't proved to be all that sturdy a candidate (he needed a heck of a lot of vacation time during the primaries--kinda like Dubya), and, considering the fact that NEITHER of Obama's parents are still alive, one might consider that Obama's genes are just as iffy as McCain's. Now, just for the record, this gay man from Alabama intends to vote for the only candidate from a PRO-GAY party. The Green Party is the only party that officially acknowledges that the LGBT community are FULL citizens, deserving of the SAME rights as heteros. I refuse to reward the racists running the Democratic Party with my vote for President. (And yes, anyone that says--or even IMPLIES--that I must be a racist for not supporting Obama is every bit a racist as a member of the KKK.)

Name: Joseph
Date posted: 2008-09-27 1:29 AM
Hometown: Montgomery, AL

Comment:

(cont from below) Obama has been a US Senator since Jan 2005, and his Senate voting record is incredibly flimsy--at one point, his voting record was the WORST of ALL Senators, including Hillary and McCain AND Tim Johnson (the SD Senator who was incapacitated from brain surgery for the better part of a year). Why? Because he's been too busy running for President for the last 18 months. As to foreign policy experience, what exactly is Obama's? He touted his years growing up in Indonesia and a visit to Pakistan as a teenager. Well big whoop. Then, he took that little whirlwind trip this summer. Yet, he didn't have time since the Dems organized the Senate in 2007 to hold a single hearing for his Senate FOREIGN AFFAIRS Sub-committee (which covers Europe, and, through its NATO oversight, the war in Afghanistan).

Name: Joseph
Date posted: 2008-09-27 1:09 AM
Hometown: Montgomery, AL

Comment:

I love the absurdist hypocrisy of the Obamaphiles here. Obama has NOT proved himself to be a TRUE friend of the LGBT community. He OPPOSES same-sex marriage (and until 2004, he wasn't publicly supportive of civil unions either). He PERSONALLY invited Donnie McClurkin on that little tour of South Carolina (allegedly designed to bring Black Evangelicals into the Democratic fold--even though they largely supported the Democrats in previous elections). He has allowed a vocally anti-gay minister (James Meeks) to be one of his closest advisors. (This was also the man who condemned pro-Daley African-Americans with the "n-word"--prefaced by the word "house" to suggest they were mere slaves.) Then, of course, there's the incredible fact that Palin is running as the VP candidate, so her lack of experience should be much less troubling than Obama's lack of experience.

Name: Jackson Steele
Date posted: 2008-09-26 5:08 PM
Hometown: Anchorage, Alaska

Comment:

She is a Bush/Cheney Republican. She is devious and vindictive. She ran and won the governorship on an ethics platform. Considering just about every leading Republican in Alaska is either under suspicion, under investigation, under indictment, in trial or in jail, her election was no big achievement. She managed to hide her radical social conservatism, intolerance of anything but radical Christian theology and her vindictiveness during the campaign. The Democrat opponent ran an embarassingly naive, stupid and ineffective campaign. Her political appointees are among the most homophobic people in the State. Loyalty first (or be a high school chum) and competence is low on the list. I know, I work for them. I'm an Alaska Executive Branch employee.

Name: Erik H
Date posted: 2008-09-26 3:38 PM
Hometown: San Francisco

Comment:

This woman is frightening. Sarah Palin is a member of church whose pastor is hosting a “pray away the gays” conference. That speaks for her thoughts on LGBT rights. However, what is truly scary is that—worse case scenario--this woman could become president, if something were to happen to McCain. Her ignorance in the area of foreign policy and her ultra-traditional views regarding religion could create a holy war. Who would she bomb first—Russia, Canada, or liberal San Francisco? Sarah Palin’s stance on LGBT rights is truly important. Moreover, her lack of experience, knowledge, or understanding of multiple diverse groups in the world is something to be considered also.

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