State Republican lawmakers in Alaska
laughed off the idea of recognizing the relationships of gay and
lesbian couples.
When Mark Miller of the Juneau
Empire asked members of the GOP House majority about gay couples,
the response was a laugh.
“I'm looking at a recent Public
Policy Polling survey of Alaska that found that only 30 percent of
respondents believe there should be no legal recognition of a gay
couple's relationship in Alaska,” Miller said during a videotaped
press conference. “I was just curious. Would the caucus support
the idea of having domestic partnerships or civil unions open to
same-sex couples?”
Once the laughter died down, Rep. Lance
Pruitt, a Republican from East Anchorage, said recognition of gay
couples wasn't a “guiding principle” of the House GOP caucus.
“Your discussion on that? We didn't
talk about that. And I'll be straight. We didn't talk about that
particular issue,” Pruitt answered. “That was not something that
we said, 'We're going to make that one of our guiding principles.'
It wasn't something that came up in our discussions.” (The video
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