John Bolton and His Moustache Support Gay Marriage

by Michael Jones · 2010-09-03 15:22:00 UTC
Topics:

Controversial former UN Ambassador John Bolton caused the political chattering classes to perk up this week, when he mentioned that he might be considering a run for President in 2012. My, what a colorful candidacy that would bring. War hawk views mixed with the most powerful moustache in politics.

Bolton seems to draw controversy like pollen draws bees. Perhaps he's a bit masochistic on that front, since his views tend to go more for shock and awe than trying to capture where the American public sits on most issues. Bolton favors militarily attacking Iran. He once suggested that there was no such thing as the United Nations (despite working there). He also faced allegations of losing his temper on the job, throwing stuff around at the office, and making fun of at least one employee's weight.

Not entirely presidential material. Unless one's idea of presidential is Yosemite Sam.

But in an interview with the Daily Caller, Bolton actually did sound relatively sensible when talking about the issue of gay rights, including "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and marriage equality. Turns out that along with Republicans like Ken Mehlman, Dick Cheney, Christine Todd Whitman, Ted Olson, and Margaret Hoover, John Bolton is OK with the gays getting married.

Gosh, it almost feels unnatural to say that John Bolton is now more progressive than Barack Obama on the issue of gay marriage. But sadly, it's the truth.

According to the Daily Caller, Bolton said that if he does run in 2012, social issues won't be a big deal to him. His position on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell?"

“I don’t think there is any good answer to the question why shouldn’t gays and lesbians who want to serve their country be allowed to do it," Bolton said. And on the issue of same-sex marriage? Since it's going to happen eventually, Bolton sees no reason to fight it.

Wow, whatever someone slipped into Bolton's food, could you spread that around to a number of other legislators, too?

Well, perhaps not quite. Bolton still doesn't see marriage equality as a civil right, and doesn't want to require states to recognize the civil rights of LGBT Americans if they don't want to. He's more of a "If Massachusetts wants to do it, but Mississippi doesn't, so be it," kind of guy.

He also seems to think that the phrase "peace process" is synonymous with blowing the smithereens out of something. So on that level, yeah, maybe not so cool.

Still, if the man once dubbed "a bull in a China shop" for his lack of diplomatic skills can support marriage equality more than most Democrats, what does that say about the state of today's Democratic Party?

Photo credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Target's Brand Buzz Is In The Toilet Over Anti-Gay Donation
NEXT STORY:
Bullied high schooler convinces MPAA to change ‘Bully’ rating to “PG-13”

COMMENTS (7)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.