Chet Edwards scored 15 out of 100 on HRC’s Congressional Scorecard

Speaker Nancy Pelosi

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, arguably the LGBT community’s most powerful straight political ally, is supporting an anti-gay Texas congressman in the Democratic presidential veepstakes, The Associated Press reports.

Pelosi says she wants Chet Edwards, a Democrat from Waco who’s been in the House since 1990, to be Sen. Barack Obama’s running mate.

“I hope he will be the nominee,” Pelosi said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

Edwards scored a 15 out of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s most recent Congressional Scorecard, putting him in a three-way tie for least gay-friendly among 11 Democratic House members from Texas. Among other things, Edwards, a Southern Baptist, supported the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2006.

“As a husband and a father, I believe that marriage is a sacred union between a man and a woman and I will support efforts in Congress to protect the sanctity of this union,” Edwards said in a press release posted on his Web site.

The press release notes that Edwards also supported the Marriage Protection Act in 2004 and the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996.

Pelosi’s office didn’t return a phone call seeking comment.




This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition August 8, 2008.