Gay Marriage Receives Unlikely Support from Dick Cheney

Former Vice President Dick Cheney speaks at the Gerald R. Ford Foundation's annual Journalism Awards on June 1, 2009 in Washington, DC. Cheney strongly defended the Bush administration's record on national security. (Photo by Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)more pics »So maybe Dick Cheney DOES have a soul.

In the most progressive policy stance he's probably ever taken, former Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday he supports gay marriage, so long as it's decided at the state level.

While speaking at the National Press Club for the Gerald R. Ford Foundation journalism awards, Cheney was asked about recent California court rulings and Iowa legislation pertaining to same-sex marriage.
I think that freedom means freedom for everyone. As many of you know, one of my daughters is gay and it is something we have lived with for a long time in our family. I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish. Any kind of arrangement they wish. The question of whether or not there ought to be a federal statute to protect this, I don't support. I do believe that the historically the way marriage has been regulated is at the state level. It has always been a state issue and I think that is the way it ought to be handled, on a state-by-state basis. ... But I don't have any problem with that. People ought to get a shot at that. Cheney has made similar states-rights arguments in the past, but has never been so publicly forthcoming in his support for same-sex marriage.

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