主持人：总统先生，你们两位都反对同性恋婚姻。但为了更好地理解你的态度，我想再问你一个根本问题。你认为同性恋是人们的一种选择么？

　布什：我所知道的是，在美国我有一个选择，那就是我们要以宽容、尊敬、和尊严去对待他人。我们那样做很重要。并且我也知道，在一个自由的社会里，人们赞成成年人按照他们自己的生活方式生活，这应该受到尊敬。 　　

  但是，在我们尊重某人的权利和给予宽容的同时，我们不应该改变对婚姻的基本观点。我坚信婚姻的神圣。我认为我们要保护婚姻是一个男人和一个女人之间的结合这一传统观念，这很重要。我提出了一个宪法修正案。我之所以这样做，是因为我担心一些激进的法官要明确婚姻这个概念，保护男女之间婚姻的最可靠的途径就是修正宪法。允许国民参与到宪法修正这一过程中来也很有益处。总之，当你修正宪法以后，州议会必须承认这个修正了的美国宪法。我非常担心的是，不是美国公民而是那些法官要做那些决定。你知道，国会通过了一个叫DOMA的法案，就是《婚姻保护法》。

   我的对手反对这个法案。它根本上保护了各州对另一州的决定可以不承认的权力。它也明确婚姻是一个男人和一个女人之间的结合。但是我担心那个法案会被推翻。如果它被推翻，我们将最后不得不由法院来给婚姻定义，那么我认为那不符合我们的国家利益。

   克里：我们都是上帝的孩子。如果你是对迪克切尼(译者注：美国福总统，他的女儿玛丽是同性恋者，任科思酿造公司的公关经理)的同性恋女儿说，她会告诉你她是什么样的一个人，她生来就是一个什么样的人。

　我认为，如果你对任何人说，不允许有这样的选择。我见过一些为之奋斗多年的人们，婚姻是人们根据一个契约去生活，他们为这个契约而奋斗。并且我见过一些支持丈夫的妻子和支持妻子的丈夫，他们冲破束缚，要求允许他们按照自认为上帝给他们的性别去选择生活。我认为我们必须尊重他们的选择。

　我和总统都认为婚姻是一个男人和一个女人之间的结合。我是这么认为的。我认为婚姻是一个男人和一个女人之间的结合。但是，我也同样认为，因为我们是美利坚合众国，我们国家有一部伟大的、不容置疑的宪法，我们赋予人民权利，你不能在实际操作中有歧视。你不能歧视赋予人民的权利。你不能剥夺人们到医院探望伴侣的权利。你必须允许人们传承财产，这就是我为什么支持伴侣权的原因，如此等等。

  现在，关于《婚姻保护法》和婚姻法律，各州过去一直有权调整那些法律。今天他们也在调整，他们可以适当调整那些法律。

　　Gay marriage 　　MODERATOR: Mr. President, both of you are opposed to gay marriage. But to understand how you have come to that conclusion, I want to ask you a more basic question. Do you believe homosexuality is a choice?

　BUSH: I do know that we have a choice to make in America and that is to treat people with tolerance and respect and dignity. It’s important that we do that. And I also know in a free society people, consenting adults can live the way they want to live. And that’s to be honored. But as we respect someone’s rights, and as we profess tolerance, we shouldn’t change our basic views on the sanctity of marriage. I believe in the sanctity of marriage. I think it’s very important that we protect marriage as an institution, between a man and a woman.

  I proposed a constitutional amendment. The reason I did so was because I was worried that activist judges are actually defining the definition of marriage, and the surest way to protect marriage between a man and woman is to amend the Constitution. It has also the benefit of allowing citizens to participate in the process. After all, when you amend the Constitution, state legislatures must participate in the ratification of the Constitution. I’m deeply concerned that judges are making those decisions and not the citizenry of the United States. You know, Congress passed a law called DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act.

　My opponent was against it. It basically protected states from the action of one state to another. It also defined marriage as between a man and woman. But I’m concerned that that will get overturned. And if it gets overturned, then we’ll end up with marriage being defined by courts, and I don’t think that’s in our nation’s interests.

  KERRY: We’re all God’s children. And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney’s daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she’s being who she was, she’s being whom she was born as.

  I think if you talk to anybody, it’s not choice. I’ve met people who struggled with this for years, people who were in a marriage because they were living a sort of convention, and they struggled with it. And I’ve met wives who are supportive of their husbands or vice versa when they finally sort of broke out and allowed themselves to live who they were, who they felt God had made them. I think we have to respect that.

  The president and I share the belief that marriage is between a man and a woman. I believe that. I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. But I also believe that because we are the United States of America, we’re a country with a great, unbelievable Constitution, with rights that we afford people, that you can’t discriminate in the workplace. You can’t discriminate in the rights that you afford people. You can’t disallow someone the right to visit their partner in a hospital. You have to allow people to transfer property, which is why I’m for partnership rights and so forth.

  Now, with respect to DOMA and the marriage laws, the states have always been able to manage those laws. And they’re proving today, every state, that they can manage them adequately.