Florida Senator Bill Nelson became the latest Democratic Senator to publicly reverse his previous opposition to same-sex marriage in a statement to The Tampa Bay Tribune:
It is generally accepted in American law and U.S. society today “… that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. I believe that. The civil rights and responsibilities for one must pertain to all.
Thus, to discriminate against one class and not another is wrong for me.
If we are endowed by our Creator with rights, then why shouldn’t those be attainable by Gays and Lesbians?
Simply put, if The Lord made homosexuals as well as heterosexuals, why should I discriminate against their civil marriage? I shouldn’t, and I won’t.
So I will add my name to the petition of senators asking the Supreme Court to declare the law that prohibits gay marriage unconstitutional.
Among Democrats that leaves Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD), Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), and Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) as the only Democratic Senators who have not come out in support of same-sex marriage. Given that these are all “red state” Senators the odds of them taking a public stand at the moment is likely low. This is especially true for Mark Pryor who faces the probability of a serious challenge in Arkansas, where the GOP ousted Blanche Lincoln in 2010 by an overwhelming margin.
