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Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, John McCain’s running mate, opposes domestic partner benefits for state employees and supported an amendment banning same-sex marriage. (Photo by Keith Srakocic/AP)
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HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
By: LOU CHIBBARO JR COMMENTS
 
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of state employees, saying her attorney general advised her that the bill was unconstitutional.
“Signing this bill would be in direct violation of my oath of office,” Palin said in a statement.
At the time of the veto, Palin reiterated her opposition to the court ruling on the benefits issue as well as her opposition to same-sex marriage.
“I believe that honoring the family structure is that important,” Palin told the Anchorage Daily News in explaining why she opposed gay marriage and same-sex partner benefits for state employees.
The newspaper reported that Palin said she’s “not out to judge anyone and has good friends who are gay.”
Her strong religious views, which also include opposition to abortion, were the underlying reason for her opposition to gay marriage and same-sex partner benefits, she told the Anchorage Daily news.
In April 2007, Alaska’s voters approved the advisory measure in support of a constitutional amendment to overturn the court’s decision on same-sex partners by a margin of 53 percent to 47 percent.
Marsha Buck, co-chair of Alaskans Together for Equality, a statewide gay group whose members campaigned against the advisory ballot measure, said the 47 percent vote opposing the measure shocked many of the state’s conservative, anti-gay advocates, who expected the measure to pass by a landslide.
“They expected the margin to be similar to the 1998 marriage amendment, which passed by a vote of 65 percent to 35 percent,” Buck said. “It took the wind out of their sails.”
One month later, in May 2007, the proposed constitutional amendment itself came before the Alaska House of Representatives and fell short of receiving the required two-thirds majority vote. Later that year, the proposed amendment died in committee in the Alaska Senate.
The amendment’s lead supporter, State Rep. John Coghill, a Republican, has vowed to bring the measure up for another vote, although it has not yet resurfaced this year.
“America may not know much about Sarah Palin, but based on what our community has seen of her, we know enough,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay advocacy group.
“Sarah Palin not only supported the 1998 Alaska constitutional amendment banning marriage equality but, in her less than two years as governor, even expressed the extreme position of supporting stripping away domestic partner benefits for workers.”
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