Suddenly Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly is vocally against a DoMA-style amendment to the commonwealth constitution. In interviews with a TV station and the two local dailies yesterday, he stated flatly that once a right is given it should not be taken away.
Before the decision legalizing same-sex marriage, he led the fight against it, while urging, maybe, civil unions. That pretty much put him in line with Republican Governor Mitt Romney.
For reasons no one seems to fathom, Massachusetts has been in a pattern of electing Republican governors and lieutenant governors, and Democratic legislatures and attorneys general. The plot here thickens when Reilly is seen as an unannounced candidate for governor next year.
He claims that he has matured and that because he always, as chief lawyer here, has supported the law of the commonwealth. Thus, he said, he has been consistent.
The gay community does not universally accept that. Cynics or realists among them followed up his interviews yesterday with disparaging comments. He was not a leader for the cause when he had a chance. Now that it may benefit him to distance himself from Romney, he seems to be courting the homosexual and liberal voters. For example, the lead editorial in leading gay newspaper, Bay Windows, is headlined Reilly's acts hard to forgive. It calls for some other candidate for governor and concludes that Reilly will really have to grovel to get the gay vote.
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