86 days 'til the election, reason #15/100 why we all should vote for Hillary:
As most thinking people do, she has changed her positions over time on some important issues (part 1 of 2). Early in her political career she supported civil unions but also said that "she believed that marriage was "a sacred bond between a man and a woman." As a Senator she was in favor of letting states make the decision. After her tenure as Secretary of State, she announced "I support marriage for lesbian and gay couples. I support it personally and as a matter of policy and law, embedded in a broader effort to advance equality and opportunity for LGBT Americans and all Americans."
Politifact rates this as a Full Flop, but, IMHO, it shows that she spent some time thinking about this issue, questioning her own beliefs, and coming to a deeper understanding just as, it seems from this chart, many other Americans did.
I can understand this as I also changed my view on marriage during this time. I used to be strongly opposed to the institution of marriage as a tool of the patriarchy but, after seeing my gay friends fight so hard for the right to marry, I came to see that marriage has symbolic power and economic value outside of religion and patriarchy. It is a public statement of commitment and partnership. (My now husband and I were married in 2010 on the 20th anniversary of our first date.)
As Dan Savage said in this piece on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, “When you go to somebody, go to a politician, and you say, ‘Please change your mind,’ when they change their mind, you don’t then spend the rest of their lives going, ‘F*ck you for not changing your mind sooner!’ You say, ‘Welcome to the right side of this issue, we’re glad to have you.'”
Link to my original diary, which I will update with the new reason each day as a running log.