Tearful Republican reverses his stance against gay marriage

[This is Arlen Parsa, crossposting from The Daily Background.]

San Diego’s Republican Mayor Jerry Sanders revealed his plan to support a city measure guaranteeing equality to gays and lesbians, after previously opposing it.

Through teary-eyes, Sanders revealed his stance on gay marriage had changed after considering that anything less than full marriage equality would be demeaning to his own daughter, who is a lesbian.



(Partial transcript below.)
The LA Times reports:

Sanders, tears welling and voice breaking, said he realized that he could not tell his daughter Lisa, who is gay, that her relationship with a partner is not as important as that of a straight couple.

"I’ve decided to lead with my heart. . . to take a stand on behalf of equality and social justice,” he said haltingly.

[…]

In 2000, 62% of San Diego voters endorsed a statewide measure to restrict marriage to a union between a man and woman.

The council voted 5-3 on Tuesday to back a lawsuit pending before the California Supreme Court attempting to overturn the gay marriage ban.

I’d encourage everybody to join me in thanking Mayor Sanders for his courage by sending a nice email to jerrysanders@sandiego.gov. You know there will be tons of bigots emailing him too, so every word of encouragement counts for a lot. This was obviously something that was very hard for him to do, so our words will be very appreciated.

Partial transcript:

I intended to veto the council resolution. As late as yesterday afternoon, that was my position. The arrival of the resolution, to sign or veto, in my office late last night… [chokes up] Please excuse this… Forced me to reflect and search my soul for the right thing to do.

I’ve decided to lead with my heart, (which is probably obvious at the moment), to do what I think is right, and to take a stand on behalf of equality and social justice. The right thing for me to do is to sign this resolution.

For three decades, I’ve worked to bring enlightenment, equality, and justice to all parts of our community. As I reflected on the choices I had before me last night, I just could not bring myself to tell an entire group of people in our community they were less important, less worthy, or less deserving of the rights and responsibilities of marriage than anyone else, simply because of their sexual orientation.