Chai Feldblum, an openly lesbian nominee for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, today answered a question put to her by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who  asked the nominee if she supported polygamy.  The question came in response to a statement Feldblum had signed in support of alternative families while she was a professor at Columbia.  Law Dork describes the exchange:

Feldblum began, initially, by stating unambiguously, “I do not support polygamy.”  She went on to say that it was a “mistake” to sign the petition and told the Committee that it was for that reason that she asked for her name to be removed from it.  Ben Smith at Politico reported today that Feldblum had sent a letter to the petition organizers asking that her name be removed.

Harkin pushed further, asking her to explain why she had signed on to the statement in the first place.  Feldblum stated that she had been asked to sign on to the petition by “another academic from Columbia.”  She said, “I agreed with the general thrust of the statement,” and that her work at the time was very focused on efforts to “support the range of caregiving relationships.”  It was for that reason, she said, that she signed on in support of the petition.

The Committee has yet to vote on whether to send her nomination to the Senate floor for final confirmation.