Charlie Crist Calls Backing Gay Marriage Ban A 'Mistake'
- By
- Carlos Santoscoy
- | January 02, 2014
Former Florida Governor Charlie Crist has apologized for supporting Florida's constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Voters approved the amendment in 2008, two years after Crist had signed a petition to put it on the ballot.
“I'm sorry I did that. It was a mistake. I was wrong. Please forgive me,” Crist told gay weekly Watermark Online.
After an unsuccessful 2010 bid for the Senate as an independent, Crist officially became a Democrat in late 2012.
(Related: Charlie Crist is a Democrat.)
Crist argued that he opposed marriage equality and gay adoption as a Republican because he wanted to toe the GOP line.
“The examples you cite were examples of me trying to be a good Republican,” Crist said. “I couldn't do it anymore, and I'm sorry I did. I made a mistake. I'm not perfect... please don't hold me to that standard. And I'm sincerely sorry. I understand when it's necessary to say I was wrong. That's the journey I'm on... and I'm still on it.”
“As a Republican, on social issues I always felt I was a round peg in a square hole,” Crist added. “I just didn't fit. But I tried, until I couldn't do it any more... until I had to say, 'Enough is enough.'”
In November, Crist announced his bid to return to the Governor's Mansion – this time as a Democrat.