Gov. McMaster makes clear in debate he still opposes gay marriage – Charleston Post Courier

COLUMBIA — Gov. Henry McMaster said he’d support South Carolina’s voided bans on same-sex marriage if the U.S. Supreme Court ever overturned its 2015 ruling that guaranteed that right to gay couples nationwide.

The statement came during the only debate between McMaster and his challenger, Democrat Joe Cunningham, as the governor made clear he still disagrees with same-sex marriage. 

“Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I think marriage ought to be between a man and a woman, just like I think boys ought to play in boys’ sports and girls ought to play girls’ sports,” McMaster said in the debate broadcast live Oct. 26 on South Carolina Educational Television and co-hosted by The Post and Courier. 

The Republican governor was responding to a question on whether he’d support legislation taking the existing, 26-year-old ban out of state law if the nation’s high court ever returned the legality of gay marriage to the states, as it did with abortion in its June ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.

He was also asked if he’d support putting the question back before voters, 16 years after they approved inserting the ban into the state constitution.

Many voters’ stances have likely changed since that passed overwhelmingly. McMaster’s has not. 

“Gay marriage in our constitution is not allowed and in state law is not allowed,” he said. “I’d follow state law whatever the state law is.”  

The response appeared to catch even Cunningham by surprise. The Democrat has been trying for weeks to get the incumbent to take a stance on the possibility. McMaster has previously avoided the question, calling it a distraction. 

“It’s 2022, and Gov. McMaster wants to ban same-sex marriage,” Cunningham said. “You just heard that tonight, folks. We have politicians who have been in government so long and become so calcified in their beliefs. 

“I don’t care who you are or who you love,” he continued. “I don’t think it’s government’s role to be getting in the middle of that.”

Cunningham accused the governor of taking the state backward. 

McMaster shot back that he doesn’t care who people love either. 

“I don’t care who you love or don’t love or who you want to live with or what you want to do,” he said. “That’s your business. But I think marriage is a special institution and that designation ought to be reserved between a man and a woman.”

Same-sex marriage was not legal in South Carolina until the U.S. Supreme Court ruling officially ended South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson’s legal fight to uphold the state’s ban in 2015.

In the 2014 governor’s race a year earlier, both Gov. Nikki Haley and her Democratic challenger, Sen. Vincent Sheheen, said they believed marriage is between a man and a woman. Sheheen recommended a “pause” in defending the legal challenge to wait on the high court’s ruling. As legislators, both Haley and Sheheen voted to ask voters whether the constitution should ban it and voted in 2007 to ratify the decision by 78 percent of voters. 

McMaster, the state’s attorney general at the time, led the campaign for the ballot question.

Reached by The Post and Courier after the debate, Colleen Condon, a board member of the gay rights group Alliance For Full Acceptance in Charleston, said McMaster’s comments show he is refusing to see equality in the state.

“It is clear he is truly trying to lead South Carolina back to the 1950s,” said Condon, who fought for the first marriage license granted in South Carolina to a same-sex couple. “Gov. McMaster is out of touch and everyone needs remember that on Election Day.”

Beyond the gay marriage issue, the debate saw both candidates return to their set campaign positions. Cunningham continued to press for recognizing abortion rights under Roe v. Wade, legalizing sports betting and marijuana, while McMaster promoted the state’s economic climate, tax cuts made under his tenure and his challenges to the Biden administration during the pandemic and through other legal challenges.

Election Day is Nov. 8. But early voting is already underway and extends through Nov. 5.