Scrolling through Twitter, I saw images that compare Hillary Clinton’s stance on marriage equality from back in 2000, just before her husband left public office, and when she was on the campaign trail for the open Senate seat in New York.
“I think a marriage is as a marriage has always been, between a man and a woman,” she said.
The images juxtapose that statement with a more recent one that is in total support of marriage equality. Pundits and opponents have used these images to call Clinton fake and propose that her change in opinion regarding marriage equality was one for political gain rather than a “legitimate” change of heart.
While I strongly oppose the notion that marriage should be a purely heterosexual privilege, I also stand against the manner of thought that permanently holds people accountable for their old opinions.
My opinions currently float somewhere between the politics of the Green and Socialist parties, but only two years ago, I was a vehement, self-stylized anarcho-capitalist libertarian.
One of my most formative memories from that time was an argument I had with my mother in which I stated that there should be no public funding for roads.
I thought that the roads that were most often used would be repaired by those who drove on them to prevent damage to their vehicles, either by an extensive toll system or through private donations.
I am ashamed that I once thought this way, and I wonder about what my life would be like at UNC if my current opinions were given less weight than the opinions I had when I thought Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” was the pinnacle of Western thought, a time when I wanted to write a novel for the explicit purposes of getting rich and exposing the folly of the liberal agenda. I would be a pariah among my friends here.
Indeed, years ago, I even shared Clinton’s opinion regarding marriage. For me to hate her for once thinking just as I did would be forgetting my own past. Though I find the thought that marriage should be reserved for straight couples reprehensible, I respect that Clinton’s stance on the issue has changed to reflect what is just and moral.
