Nancy Reagan, Marriage Equality Supporter?

We have Republican former first lady Nancy Reagan in the marriage equality camp, at least according to her daughter Patti Davis.

Davis recently said her late father, former president Ronald Reagan, would have been a marriage equality supporter, and in a new interview with Michelangelo Signorile on his Sirius OutQ radio show, she says her mother is for equal marriage rights as well.

"She does," Davis said in response to Signorile's query about her mother's position. "I'm hesitant to speak for anyone else, and she's not comfortable going out in the public eye and getting in the firing line of anything. So, you know, I want to be cautious about speaking on someone else's behalf. But let me put it this way: I think if she had disagreed with what I said publicly about my father she would have said something publicly. ... Let's just put it that way. That's the most sort of politically correct way I can answer that question."

Davis and brother Ron Reagan are both liberals and LGBT rights supporters; their half-brother, Michael Reagan, is an ultraconservative commentator and LGBT rights opponent. He objected to Davis's statement that their father would have backed marriage equality, saying Ronald Reagan would not have done so when he was president in the 1980s, and as for now, "It's easy to say he would do or not do something when he's not here to answer." For her part, Davis noted to Signorile that Michael Reagan, in a recent op-ed opposing marriage equality, did not invoke their father's name.

"I thought that was very telling, because he always talks about our father," Davis said. In Michael's column, he said legal recognition of same-sex marriage could create "a very slippery slope leading to other alternative relationships and the unconstitutionality of any law based on morality. Think about polygamy, bestiality, and perhaps even murder." Davis called that argument "just horrific," adding, "Our father would in no way tolerate that kind of ugly talk and that kind of hateful speech."

Read more at The Huffington Post, which also has audio of Signorile's interview with Davis.