Rand Paul: Same-Sex Unions Aren’t Marriages, Can Only Be About A Contract (Video)

GOP presidential candidate Rand Paul says “traditional marriage” is founded in religion, same-sex unions should only be about contracts.

Rand Paul once again made clear that his claim of being a libertarian is false – he’s a Tea Party Republican extremist.

The U.S. Senator from Kentucky who launched his presidential campaign last week, sat down with CNN’s Dana Bash for an interview that aired Sunday.

Bash caught Paul in a strong contradiction. 

“Why do you believe — just as a core principle as a libertarian — that people should be left alone, but not when it comes to their right to marry someone they love?” Bash queried. 

“I do believe people ought to be left alone,” Paul responded. “I don’t care who you are, what you do at home or who your friends are, where you hang out, what kind of music you listen to. What you do in your home is your own business. That’s always been who I am. I am a leave-me-alone kind of guy.”

“But not when it comes to marriage,” Bash countered.

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Note that Senator Paul sees same-sex couples the way most Republicans who claim to “not care” about gay people do, because what you do in your bedroom is your own business. “What you do in your home is your own business,” he tells Bash. 

He also made quite clear he does not support same-sex marriage, but conceded that “the states will end up making the decisions on these things” – ignoring the upcoming likely Supreme Court ruling expected to find a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry.

“I think there’s a religious connotation” to marriage, he told Bash. “I also believe people ought to be treated fairly under the law. I see why if the marriage contract conveys certain things, that if you want to marry another woman, you can do that and have a contract. But the thing is that the religious connotation of marriage that has been going on for thousands of years, I still want to preserve that.”

In over 60 court rulings, judges have found that treating same-sex couples differently from different-sex couples is not treating people fairly under the law.

“And you probably could have both,” Paul continued, as if talking about some metaphysical construct that might be invented some day. “You could have both the traditional marriage, which I believe in and then you could also have the neutrality of the law that allows people to have contracts with another.”

What is surprising is that Sen. Paul appears to have given the issue of same-sex marriage little to no thought.

He also talks of it as if same-sex couples haven’t existed until now, and their dedication and devotion to each other and the children they are raising have no bearing whatsoever on how the country should support them. It’s just a business transaction where contracts with one another are what he considers fair treatment under the law.

It’s totally reminiscent of Mitt Romney‘s 2004 response to a group of LGBT advocates who for days tried to get an audience with the then-Massachusetts governor.

After speaking with him for 45 minutes about the importance of marriage for them as same-sex couples, most of whom in the room were raising children, Governor Romney’s only response was, “I didn’t know you had families.”

 

Image: Screenshot via CNN
Hat tip and transcript: David Edwards at Raw Story