Today’s email tray brings news from “New Yorkers for Marriage Equality” that former Memphis congressman Harold Ford Jr., now working on Wall Street and a resident of New York, has done a full 180-degree turn on the opposition to same-sex marriage which he expressed as a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee in 2006.
Ford, whose trial run for a 2008 Senate campaign in New York was aborted, partly because of organized opposition by the state’s gay community to his candidacy, has now made a video for “New Yorkers for Marriage Equality,” in which he says the following:
“I’m former congressman Harold Ford, and I’m a New Yorker for marriage equality. I’m proud to say that my views on this issue of marriage equality have changed. I’ve listened, and I’ve learned. I believe committed gay and lesbian couples in New York should be able to marry. So join me and a super-majority of New Yorkers who view this issue as a matter of basic fairness. It’s time to get this done.”
Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that a bill to legalize same-sex marriage is gathering steam in the New York state Senate and that the video featuring Ford’s change of mind is being employed as part of proponents’ campaign to pass the bill.
Says the Times article:
“Mr Ford, a Democrat who is now a New Yorker, long opposed such unions, even backing a constitutional amendment to ban them as a member of the House.
“The ad’s message, said Brian Ellner of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group that made the video, is that lawmakers should not hesitate to change their mind on an issue of civil rights.”
Here is the Ford video:
