Indiana culture warriors Micah Clark and Eric Miller cannot be happy campers.
I get Pew Research Center’s Daily Religion Headlines in my inbox. On Thursday, two headlines confirmed what anyone watching the American landscape already knows: gay rights has gone mainstream.
The first headline was from the Detroit Free Press. It read Major Michigan companies want to ban LGBT discrimination against workers. The story highlighted an effort by the Michigan business community to include sexual orientation under the state’s civil rights laws. Note, this isn’t the business community trying to block a mean-spirited measure; it’s an affirmative effort to guarantee civil rights.
The second was a headline from the Christian Science Monitor, in the form of a question. Gay Marriage: Is GOP Tiptoeing Away from Opposition? The article cited a Pew poll that found 61 percent of Republicans under age 30 favoring the right to same-sex marriage, and it pointed to movement on the issue around the country.
- Earlier this month, the Nevada Republican Party removed opposition to gay marriage from its platform.
- On April 19, most of the Illinois Republican officials who tried to remove the state party chairman over his support of same-sex marriage lost their party positions.
- On April 29, the Washington College Republican Federation announced it had passed a resolution calling for a change to both the state and federal Republican platforms’ stance on marriage to make them more “inclusive.”
- In January, the New Mexico College Republicans agreed to drop language opposing same-sex marriage from their platform.
The day when Karl Rove could turn out the Republican base by demonizing GLBT folks is over. The party can elect people to Congress by dint of voter suppression and gerrymandering, but if it wants to elect a President sometime this century, the GOP will have to recognize that this battle is over.
The base (in both senses of that word) lost.
Why is the GOP so interested in the sex lives of others? Not only their opposition to LGBT issues but controling women’s rights to opt for birth control which is of course a sexual issue but a medical decision. If they are so determined to control the sex lives of others; I strongly suggest they take dead aim at sex offenders, especially the thousands of known child molesters in this city alone. That is a sexual issue that demands attention and action to keep those arrested in prison for full terms and each and every one of them should be lifetime registrants – not for brief periods of time. They continue their despicable actions long after their registration time runs out. There are four in my small middle-class neighborhood plus one violent sexual predator. I have a nephew serving 84 years after spending 20 years molesting handicapped young boys. I hope he never draws a free breath and he was a child I loved as my own; his mother felt the same way prior to her death. These monsters prey on the most helpless in all communities while the GOP is concerned about same-sex marriages between two law abiding, responsible adults who only seek their civil and human rights. It may be lessening but it isn’t going to disappear for a long time to come.
The basic issue is one of personal freedom. If I’m not violating someone else’s rights, government has no business intervening. That goes for who I love, what I smoke or how I view religion and a dozen other things.
It’s really very simple. If you don’t like Gay marriage, don’t be in one. If you don’t like Marijuana, don’t use it. If you don’t like Black people, don’t hang with them. If you don’t like birth control, don’t use it. But don’t you dare tell me I can’t. Just because YOUR religion says it’s bad doesn’t mean I’m bound by the way you think. Pedophilia is different. Assault a person, especially a child, and you’ve violated that person’s rights and you pay the price.
Yet the battle continues…. A good friend of mine was bashed this week in a county jail in Indiana. All documented on tape. My friend did everything right. And got beat up for his troubles. Now HE is in solitary for 30 days. This stuff is getting better but for sure it is not over just yet. Keep fighting the good fight.
What Neal said.
We spent last evening at a wonderful party. Half the couples were straight and half were gay. You know, at the end of the day, there’s not a difference. We all want to be with someone we love. For our dear friends to have to hide who they are unless they’re in the safety of their own home or a friend’s home is so wrong. I agree with Neal. You can have your religion. Just don’t try and tell me how to think because of YOUR religion!
This assumes Republican’s goal is to win national elections. That’s not really true. Most if them are more interested in keeping their gerrymandered House seats, and that means protecting their right flank. Nationally, or even state-wide, they have to win primaries, so again, they’re covering the right flank. The strategy for State and national elections, therefore, is voting suppression. So far, it’s working. And it will keep working as long as they control Secretary of State offices and the Federal bench.
In today’s column, Brian Howey says that one part of Indiana has national ambitions: Pence is looking more “presidential”, with his claim that Indiana is the state “that works” with its “low” unemployment rate, lowered taxes, and surplus, while he dodges controversy. Not that quality of life is a big issue or anything. Makes me picture a smiling crowd from the front, but viewed from the back, you see bare backsides and rags. I don’t think he wants to campaign on trying to make the U.S. look like Indiana, which is in hot competition for last place on so many fronts. Pence: the empty suit.
Too bad we couldn’t get this kind of support and organization for reproductive issues. Apparently slapping women for having sex with men is still okey dokey with the GOP.