GIULIANI COMES OUT AGAINST CIVIL UNIONS

Michael Roston Published: Thursday April 26, 2007
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The political website of the New York Sun will report tomorrow that in a major reversal from an earlier position, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani now opposes civil unions between same sex partners.

An advance copy of an article sent to RAW STORY shows that the New York Republican has backed off his earlier support for civil unions, prompted by the passage of a law in New Hampshire's State Senate.

"In this specific case the law states same sex civil unions are the equivalent of marriage and recognizes same sex unions from outside states. This goes too far and Mayor Giuliani does not support it," the Giuliani campaign said in a written response sent to the Sun's Ryan Sager.

The Sun notes that Giuliani had said in 2004 on Fox News, "I'm in favor of...civil unions."

Sager suggests that Giuliani is staking out the position in order to secure himself among charges that he's too liberal to win the Republican vote.

"Yesterday's statement is likely to lead many observers to question whether the former mayor is concerned that his socially liberal record and positions aren't flying in the Republican primary," he writes in a post tomorrow on the New York Sun's Politics website. "While he still holds a commanding lead in the national polls, he has taken a hit over the last month or so after reiterating his support for the public funding of abortion."

An additional excerpt from Sager's article is presented below. You can read the full article at the New York Sun Politics website.

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In 1998, as mayor of New York City, Mr. Giuliani signed into law a domestic partnership bill that a gay rights group, the Empire State Pride Agenda, hailed as setting 'a new national benchmark for domestic partner recognition.'

Despite Mr. Giuliani's long history of supporting gay rights - or rather, because of it - yesterday's statement is likely to lead many observers to question whether the former mayor is concerned that his socially liberal record and positions aren't flying in the Republican primary. While he still holds a commanding lead in the national polls, he has taken a hit over the last month or so after reiterating his support for the public funding of abortion.

"Why would you want to take a position where you are splitting hairs, when you have been so consistently on the record as for civil unions?" a Republican pollster reached for comment yesterday evening by the Sun, Tony Fabrizio, asked. "You can't turn around at the eleventh hour and say this comes a little too close to marriage and then not support it."

New Hampshire, home to the first-in-the-nation primary, is the second state - after Connecticut - to adopt civil unions strictly through its Legislature, without any order from its courts.