Appearing Sunday on CNN's State of
the Union, Kentucky Senator and presidential candidate Rand Paul
explained how his opposition to gay marriage does not contradict his
libertarian ideology.
In an interview with Dana Bash, Paul
was asked about the apparent contradiction.
“In New Hampshire, you said, 'I will
fight for your right to be left alone.' I realize that you believe
gay marriage is a state issue, but why do you believe, just as a core
principle, as a libertarian, that people should be left alone but not
when it comes to their right to marry somebody they love?”
“I do believe people ought to be left
alone,” Paul
answered. “I don't care who you are, what you do at home or
who your friends are, where you hang out, what kind of music you
listen to. What you do in your home is your own business. That's
always been who I am. I am a leave-me-alone kind of guy.”
“But not when it comes to marriage,”
Bash said.
“I think there's a religious
connotation to this. I also believe people ought to be treated
fairly under the law. I see why if the marriage contract conveys
certain things, that if you want to marry another woman, you can do
that and have a contract. But the thing is that the religious
connotation of marriage that has been going on for thousands of
years, I still want to preserve that,” Paul said.
Paul went on to say that gay couples
could “have contracts.”
“You could have both the traditional
marriage, which I believe in and then you could also have the
neutrality of the law that allows people to have contracts with
another,” he said.
Lawsuits challenging state gay marriage
laws, however, are not asking for church recognition. A civil
marriage is a neutral contract which applies only to the government,
and no contract between private individuals can impose the
responsibilities on third parties – including the government –
that marriage does.