Adam Baldwin · @adamsbaldwin
12th Feb 2011 from Twitlonger
August 1, 2003
REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER
BILL MAHER: And it does seem especially hypocritical since 9/11, when we are so crowing about freedom in this country. Freedom, freedom, freedom – but not the freedom to love who you want to love?
Okay, let me ask you this Congressman [Barney Frank (D-MA)], if gay people were allowed all the rights and privileges that anybody else could have, in other words, they could get the insurance and they could get everything else, but you couldn’t get the name “marriage,” would you go for that?
BARNEY FRANK: Oh, I would, yeah. If there were all the legal rights – remember, gay and lesbian people pay taxes and what we’re saying is, we should be eligible for all the benefits that are supported by the taxes we pay. If people want to create a situation which there is the full legal rights that go with being married, and the price of that was to call it something else, I’m not big on what you call things. And so that would not concern me at all.
What I’m looking for is the right, as I said, two people in love who want to join to their emotional commitment a legal and moral financial responsibility for each other, and if you wanted to call it something else, we can even have a contest.
http://www.safesearching.com/billmaher/print/t_hbo_realtime_080103.htm (expired link)