Hypocrite Watch Part 1: Rudy Giuliani on Civil Unions

We have news today regarding the two most hypocritical politicians who are prominent candidates for their party’s nominations. Starting with the nunber one must hypocritical politician, The Boston Globe reports that Rudy Giuliani is constinuing his conservative shift. Giuliani started out with a reputation as a social liberal, but has gradually been changing his views in order to appease the social conservatives who control the Republican Party. Th e article discusses changes in positions on issues such as abortion and assault weapons but concentreates on civil unions:

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani continues to discard the moderate and liberal positions of his past. The latest is civil unions for same-sex couples, which the Republican presidential candidate has been backing away from in recent months.

A campaign aide told the Globe this weekend that Giuliani favors a much more modest set of rights for gay partners than civil union laws in effect in four states offer.

Giuliani has described himself as a backer of civil unions and is frequently described that way in news reports. But he began distancing himself from civil unions in late April, when his campaign told The New York Sun that New Hampshire’s new law goes too far because it is “the equivalent of marriage,” which he has always opposed for gays.

Giuliani’s aides offered little explanation of what specific rights he would support for same-sex couples.

There is a certain irony that Giuliani’s problems with the right on civil unions mirrors the problems faced by Democratic politicians who support civil unions but not same sex marriage. Some Democrats have urged for creating civil unions which offer all the legal protections of marriage and which would be seen as “the equivalent of marriage.” While certainly not ideal, it appeared to be a pragmatic way around the resistance to gay marriage held by a majority of voters in most states. Apparently the right wing has caught on to this, and now finds this form of civil union too threatening.

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