NASHVILLE — Republican Gov. Bill Haslam says he disagrees with President Barack Obama’s new stance in support of same-sex marriage.
“I’ve said before, that’s not my view on the issue,” Haslam said. “I think it seems like the president has changed over a period of time. It’s his right to do so, but that’s not a position I’m in favor of.”
Republican state Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey agreed, recalling a Senate floor debate on the issue in which one lawmaker argued “a circle is a circle and a square is a square and no matter what you do, you can’t make a circle a square.”
Marriage, Ramsey said, “is between one man and one woman, period. You can call it something else, but it’s not marriage. I disagree with the president on this.”
Obama, who previously has said his views on same-sex marriage are “evolving,” told ABC News this week that “for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.”
Andy Sher is a Nashville-based staff writer covering Tennessee state government and politics for the Times Free Press. A Washington correspondent from 1999-2005 for the Times Free Press, Andy previously headed up state Capitol coverage for The Chattanooga Times, worked as a state Capitol reporter for The Nashville Banner and was a contributor to The Tennessee Journal, among other publications. Andy worked for 17 years at The Chattanooga Times covering police, health care, county government, ...
