No longer conflicted over John Edwards
No longer ‘conflicted’ over Edwards
Perry Deane Young
It was one of those rare moments on national television when a North Carolinian stood up and made you proud to be from the same state.
For once, it was not the Duke Lacrosse scandal or the ghost of ol’ Jesse Helms’ brand of bigotry raising its ugly head. Here was an African-American, the Rev. Reggie Longcrier of Hickory, speaking eloquently from our shared history in the South. Appearing in one of the You Tube videos on CNN’s Monday night debate among Democratic presidential candidates, Longcrier cited the long history of religion’s being used to justify slavery, segregation and men-only voting. Longcrier then pointedly asked John Edwards how he could justify using religion “to deny gay Americans their full and equal rights.” Edwards had said he was “conflicted” about gay rights and gay marriage “because of my Baptist background.”
Edwards stammered around in a manner that made you cringe for a fellow Tar Heel caught with his red neck showing. He said he would never impose his religious views on anyone else. That was the public, political him, “but if you ask me personally if I’m for gay marriage,” he said with sudden passion: “The answer is NO!”
His bumbling response was followed by the remarkably common sense answer to the same question by Barack Obama, who said that “marriage is a religious ceremony and should be left to the various denominations; however, in matters where the government is involved—like property rights and visitation in hospitals—homosexual couples deserve the same rights as heterosexual couples.”
All this comes on the heels of a shocking revelation in a new book by Edwards’ former campaign aide, Bob Shrum. In the book, “No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner,” Shrum recalls putting the question to Edwards at the beginning of his 1998 senatorial campaign in North Carolina. “What is your position, Mr. Edwards, on gay rights?”
“I’m not comfortable around those people,” Edwards responded.
Elizabeth Edwards, to her credit, is quoted as saying: “John, you know that’s wrong.” Edwards’ pollster, Harrison Hickman, was in the room when this discussion took place. Unfortunately, his defense of Edwards was even more damning than the original quote: Hickman said Shrum “is sensationalizing and taking out of context what was an honest discussion about [Edwards’] lack of exposure to these issues and openly gay people. I don’t remember any kind of venom or judgment about gay people.”
Well, you have to ask yourself, what manner of country club cocoon was Edwards hiding in all these years that kept him from being around “these issues and openly gay people.” Forget his mill town childhood, how could anybody born in 1953 say he was not aware of the issues affecting the lives of gay and lesbian men and women. Is he truly not aware that the suicide rate among homosexual teenagers is several times that of heterosexual teens? How could anybody go through the University of North Carolina in the 1970s as Edwards did and not be “exposed to” openly gay people?
And if this man presuming to assume the leadership of the free world is “uncomfortable” around such a huge segment of our society, don’t we have every right to ask: for God’s sake, WHY? What’s his problem?
How dare he fall back on his “Baptist background” as an excuse for his bigotry regarding homosexuals. Millions of us came out of that same background and learned from it. My own mother was reared by a tyrannical Baptist preacher, but if anything, that wretched experience made her a far more tolerant and compassionate person. When I wrote to her about my own homosexuality, she responded: “Having loved you since before you were born, I cannot love you less now. Come out of the shadows of shame and guilt and live your life in the sunshine.”
After Monday night’s debate, one of Edwards’ aides sent out a message saying this was a “turning point” for the campaign. Well, for this particular gay citizen of North Carolina and America, it was a turning point all right.
For a long time I felt guilty that I was not doing more to help the Edwards campaign since its main office is right here in our town. But, I am no longer conflicted on this point. If John Edwards is still uncertain about gay rights after all we’ve been through in the past few decades, then he is not my candidate. If he is uncomfortable around people like me, he simply does not have the strength of character to be president of the United States.
Perry Deane Young was press aide to Richardson Preyer in his 1964 gubernatorial campaign. He is the author of the Vietnam memoir, Two of the Missing, and was co-author with gay pro football player David Kopay of The David Kopay Story, which was on the New York Times bestseller list for 9 weeks in 1977. He can be reached at www.perrydeaneyoung.com
Perry Deane Young
It was one of those rare moments on national television when a North Carolinian stood up and made you proud to be from the same state.
For once, it was not the Duke Lacrosse scandal or the ghost of ol’ Jesse Helms’ brand of bigotry raising its ugly head. Here was an African-American, the Rev. Reggie Longcrier of Hickory, speaking eloquently from our shared history in the South. Appearing in one of the You Tube videos on CNN’s Monday night debate among Democratic presidential candidates, Longcrier cited the long history of religion’s being used to justify slavery, segregation and men-only voting. Longcrier then pointedly asked John Edwards how he could justify using religion “to deny gay Americans their full and equal rights.” Edwards had said he was “conflicted” about gay rights and gay marriage “because of my Baptist background.”
Edwards stammered around in a manner that made you cringe for a fellow Tar Heel caught with his red neck showing. He said he would never impose his religious views on anyone else. That was the public, political him, “but if you ask me personally if I’m for gay marriage,” he said with sudden passion: “The answer is NO!”
His bumbling response was followed by the remarkably common sense answer to the same question by Barack Obama, who said that “marriage is a religious ceremony and should be left to the various denominations; however, in matters where the government is involved—like property rights and visitation in hospitals—homosexual couples deserve the same rights as heterosexual couples.”
All this comes on the heels of a shocking revelation in a new book by Edwards’ former campaign aide, Bob Shrum. In the book, “No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner,” Shrum recalls putting the question to Edwards at the beginning of his 1998 senatorial campaign in North Carolina. “What is your position, Mr. Edwards, on gay rights?”
“I’m not comfortable around those people,” Edwards responded.
Elizabeth Edwards, to her credit, is quoted as saying: “John, you know that’s wrong.” Edwards’ pollster, Harrison Hickman, was in the room when this discussion took place. Unfortunately, his defense of Edwards was even more damning than the original quote: Hickman said Shrum “is sensationalizing and taking out of context what was an honest discussion about [Edwards’] lack of exposure to these issues and openly gay people. I don’t remember any kind of venom or judgment about gay people.”
Well, you have to ask yourself, what manner of country club cocoon was Edwards hiding in all these years that kept him from being around “these issues and openly gay people.” Forget his mill town childhood, how could anybody born in 1953 say he was not aware of the issues affecting the lives of gay and lesbian men and women. Is he truly not aware that the suicide rate among homosexual teenagers is several times that of heterosexual teens? How could anybody go through the University of North Carolina in the 1970s as Edwards did and not be “exposed to” openly gay people?
And if this man presuming to assume the leadership of the free world is “uncomfortable” around such a huge segment of our society, don’t we have every right to ask: for God’s sake, WHY? What’s his problem?
How dare he fall back on his “Baptist background” as an excuse for his bigotry regarding homosexuals. Millions of us came out of that same background and learned from it. My own mother was reared by a tyrannical Baptist preacher, but if anything, that wretched experience made her a far more tolerant and compassionate person. When I wrote to her about my own homosexuality, she responded: “Having loved you since before you were born, I cannot love you less now. Come out of the shadows of shame and guilt and live your life in the sunshine.”
After Monday night’s debate, one of Edwards’ aides sent out a message saying this was a “turning point” for the campaign. Well, for this particular gay citizen of North Carolina and America, it was a turning point all right.
For a long time I felt guilty that I was not doing more to help the Edwards campaign since its main office is right here in our town. But, I am no longer conflicted on this point. If John Edwards is still uncertain about gay rights after all we’ve been through in the past few decades, then he is not my candidate. If he is uncomfortable around people like me, he simply does not have the strength of character to be president of the United States.
Perry Deane Young was press aide to Richardson Preyer in his 1964 gubernatorial campaign. He is the author of the Vietnam memoir, Two of the Missing, and was co-author with gay pro football player David Kopay of The David Kopay Story, which was on the New York Times bestseller list for 9 weeks in 1977. He can be reached at www.perrydeaneyoung.com
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