- Position on Civil Rights: Steve Porter for Congress -

Our Constitution guarantees that no citizen can have his or her rights abridged for reasons of religion, race, creed, national origin, gender, age, or sexual orientation. I am a firm believer in this principle, and it is this principle which guides my judgment in issues involving the rights of women and minorities. In current times, this principle is being tested in three controversial areas, and I would like to comment on each.

 

REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS I do not think there is a single woman I know who, if asked what she would like to do on a Saturday night, would tell you that she would like to have an abortion. Abortion is a horrible event and one which occurs in circumstances all of which find the woman in crisis. In my own life, I am married to a devoted Catholic. Rita and I decided not to have children. But whatever our decisions might be, they should certainly not be made by Phil English, George Bush or anyone else, and neither should yours.

The government does not have any business in our bedrooms, and I am greatly angered by those who would like to give it that power. It is for this reason that I am in favor of the right of choice. Having said this, as a teacher of 37 years, I am also in favor of meaningful and age-appropriate sex education so that we reduce the circumstances of unintended pregnancy. Finally, I am in favor of presenting to women who do experience an unintended pregnancy proper counseling on the options of carrying to term and either raising the child or having it placed for adoption. But all of these choices must, for me, remain out of the hands of government.

I am against forced sterilization of anyone. I believe that individuals alone should have the right to determine whether or not they wish to limit their own reproductive capabilities.

I am not in favor of abortion as a means of birth control, and I think that all of us need to work together to try to eliminate unwanted pregnancies. I respect those women who carry pregnancies to term and think that we need programs to insure the health and well-being of their babies. But individuals and families should be able to make private decisions outside of a public forum and without the interference of government.

 

GAY MARRIAGE I believe that the current controversy over gay marriage is being confused by the unnecessary linking of civil rights and religious practice. The principle I have stated above says that gay couples should be allowed to enjoy the same legal rights that heterosexual couples enjoy. That is a Constitutional guarantee. However, if any religion were to feel it inappropriate to sanction such a union through its religious services, the right of that religion must also be upheld. Just as the government has no business abridging the civil liberties of the people, it has no business telling a religion what or what not to sanction.

Finally, should the people of America decide to change the Constitution to prohibit gay unions, they should be well-advised to recall that only once before in the history of our nation has an amendment tried to take away liberties (Prohibition), and that ended in disaster. In the film How Green Was My Valley, which won the Oscar for the best picture of 1941, Walter Pidgeon, playing the role of a Welsh minister, chastises his congregation for their cruelty toward a member of the community. He says, “You have all embraced the vengeance of the Lord, but you have forgotten the love of Jesus.” I feel that in our nation today, the spirit of vengeance and anger has overtaken the spirit of love and kindness, and it is not to our credit. I am against writing discrimination into the Constitution.

 

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION One of the most critical criteria used for college admissions is not grade-point average, or SAT score, or even letters of recommendation. It is whether or not a student’s mother or father attended that college.That is because contributions from alumnae are so important to the economic survival of the institution.This being the case, poor kids stand a far lower chance of getting into college than rich ones because so few of their parents are alumnae. Add to this the horrible reality that our school districts have an enormous gap between rich and poor, and it isn’t hard to see that poor kids get inferior educations because their schools cannot pay teachers as much as other schools, nor provide similar equipment, nor maintain similar facilities. And since poverty in America has, because of slavery and the hardships of immigration, had direct racial correlations, equality of opportunity has direct racial injustices. Until inequities are eliminated, affirmative action is the only means we have to level our social playing fields. I think it is brutally hypocritical of a person like George Bush, who got into a school like Yale more on the back of his father’s attendance than his own academic achievement, to denigrate the policies of affirmative action.

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