Yesterday, after initially suggesting that he supported a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage, Florida Governor Charlie Crist issued a clarification statement saying that while he does not support same sex marriage, he opposes a constitutional amendment prohibiting it. He favors civil unions. “I am fully supportive of civil unions and will continue to be as a United States Senator, but believe marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman,” he said. As he put it in June, “If you want to have couples or partners who want to reside together [in civil unions], I don’t have a problem with that…I’ve always supported civil unions, but I think marriage in the traditional sense is what I believe in,” Crist told Time magazine.

But that’s not what he believed in 2008. Back then, Crist had abandoned his “live and let live” attitude and announced his support for The Florida Marriage Amendment, or Proposition 2. That language prohibited not just same-sex marriages; it also outlawed civil unions:

This amendment protects marriage as the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife and provides that no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized.”

During the campaign for Proposition 2, supporters of the amendment maintained that civil unions should be prohibited alongside marriage, since they grant gay couples all of the rights of marriage. “We believed, during the campaign, that civil unions would very likely be prohibited by the amendment,” Equality Florida’s Brian Winsield told me. He remains hopeful, however, that the measure, which passed with 62% of the vote, would allow for domestic partnerships — arrangements that grant couples only some of the rights of marriage. Crist presumably has two positions on that as well.

Over at Change.org, Mike Jones highlights this latest bit of gay-baiting from Texas Governor Rick Perry (R), who is running for re-election in the state. In a rather bizarre exchange about economic growth, Perry suggested that same sex marriage would depress job creation:

Social issues might be in the back seat, but they’re still in the car: “There is still a land of opportunity, friends — it’s called Texas,” Perry said. “We’re creating more jobs than any other state in the nation. … Would you rather live in a state like this, or in a state where a man can marry a man?”

It’s a page out of Bush’s 2004 playbook and somehow sounds stale in the context of today’s economic concerns (and not to mention wrong, since marriage equality would probably aid the sate’s economy). Texas, of course, carried out Bush’s strategy to the fullest and passed a constitutional amendment that defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman, and prohibited the recognition of any other type of union. “Texans have made a decision about marriage and if there is some other state that has a more lenient view than Texas then maybe that’s a better place for them to live,” Perry said in 2005, while signing a measure that sent the amendment to a vote.

His attempts to push gay people and their supports out of the state however, may prove problematic, since a growing number of Texans are slowly embracing marriage equality. In 1996, just 26% of Texans supported same-sex marriage, now 35% do. Those numbers aren’t yet high enough for the Texas GOP to soften its anti-gay rhetoric (in fact, it seems to be ramping it up), but I suspect that it will soon prove difficult to maintain this level of hostility without alienating voters.

Just days after flip flopping on his support for the health care law, Gov. Charlie Crist (I-FL) had to clarify his stance on a federal amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Crist has supported efforts to ban gay marriage in the past and on Sunday, when asked if he is “still in favor of a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage,” Crist signaled that he was:

HENRY: Another big issue, same-sex marriage. Many conservatives like Marco Rubio support a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. But this week, the former Republican Party Chairman Ken Mehlman came out and said he’s gay and he called on conservatives to kind of move to the political center and be more tolerant on this issue. You have previously said in your gubernatorial campaign, you supported a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Now that you’re trying to occupy the political center, are you still in favor of a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage?

CRIST: I feel the same way, yes, because I feel that marriage is a sacred institution, if you will. But I do believe in tolerance. I’m a live and let live kind of guy, and while I feel that way about marriage, I think if partners want to have the opportunity to live together, I don’t have a problem with that. [...]

HENRY: But governor, doesn’t it sounds like you having it both ways by saying live and let live, but I also support a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. If it’s live and let live, why would you ban same-sex marriage?

CRIST: Well, everything is in a matter of degree, Ed, and when it becomes to the institution of marriage, I believe that it is between a man and a woman, it’s just how I feel.

Watch it:

Hours later, Crist clarified his statement, saying that while does not support a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, he still opposes same-sex marriage. “In an interview that aired today, I was not discussing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning same-sex marriage, which I do not support, but rather reaffirming my position regarding Florida’s constitutional ban that I articulated while running for Governor,” he said. “In fact, the interviewer’s question reflected just that. I am fully supportive of civil unions and will continue to be as a United States Senator, but believe marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman.”

This isn’t the first time Crist has changed his position on LGBT issues. As a Republican, governor and senatorial candidate Charlie Crist supported the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy, but as an independent, he now supports its repeal. Crist has also supported efforts to ban gay marriage in Florida, but has said that civil unions between gays are “fine.” In 2007, however, he asked the Republican party to stop spending money promoting “a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in Florida” even after he signed a petition “to place an amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage on the 2008 election ballot.” “When asked if he supported civil rights on the basis of sexual orientation, Crist said ‘no.’”

On July 28, 2006, Crist told a radio show that he “haven’t taken a position yet” on the right of gays to adopt, but only days after — in an interview by the Florida Baptist Witness — “Crist answered ‘no’ to repealing the ban on gays’ adopting.”