Advocates for gay rights find a supporter.
Some may believe that Ted Olson is a strange individual to argue for gay marriage, given his deep and strong conservative underpinnings. Let me allow Mr. Olson to explain.
Olson is Griffin’s close ally, as co–lead counsel on this Prop. 8 lawsuit along with David Boies, an equally prominent lawyer who argued Bush v. Gore on behalf of the Democrats. “I think it makes complete sense to allow, and in fact encourage, individuals who want to live in a stable, committed relationship. I don’t know why we would stigmatize them,” Olson tells The Advocate. “There is a category of individuals who believe marriage should only be between men and women, which is an outgrowth of their religious convictions: what they believe the Bible stands for, and the church stands for. I don’t quite understand how that identifies itself as conservative.”
On paper, Olson is an unlikely proponent of marriage equality. He served as President Bush’s solicitor general from 2001 to 2004, argued before the Supreme Court in 1996 against the admission of female cadets to the Virginia Military Institute, and donated to the campaigns of antigay politicians like former U.S. senator Rick Santorum as recently as 2005. But Olson asserts he’s also been advocating marriage rights for same-sex couples for at least 10 years, arguing -- as he is doing now in the lawsuit -- that sexual orientation should not be a bar to enjoying the equal protection and due process provisions of the U.S. Constitution. As such, he is proving to be significantly more progressive than President Barack Obama, whose administration in June launched a vigorous legal defense of the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriage.
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