Rudy Giuliani Drops Civil Unions Support

Republican presidential candidate and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani is rapidly distancing himself from the moderate positions of his past in order to expand his conservative base.

According to The Boston Globe, Giuliani now favors a much more modest set of rights for gay partners than civil union laws in effect in four states offer.

Giuliani has repeatedly described himself as being in favor of civil unions, a stand that started to change in April this year when he told the The New York Sun that New Hampshire's new civil union law went too far because it was "the equivalent of marriage."

In an interview with the Globe, Giuliani's campaign deputy communications director Maria Comella said Giuliani supports domestic partnership laws similar to the one he initiated in New York in 1998, which ensures benefits to partners of municipal employees.

"It's really disappointing he's stepped back from his position on civil unions," said Joe Tarver, spokesman for New York gay rights group Empire State Pride Agenda.

Calling the former mayor's changing stance "pretty un-Giuliani-like," Tarver said: "It's quite obvious he's playing to the people whose votes he needs to get the Republican nomination."