Allow me to suggest that the real threat to the Republic is not gay weddings. It is gay wedgings–the use of homophobia to create a partisan "wedge issue." Simply put, a wedge issue is the deliberate politicization of a highly charged emotional conflict over social values, intended to drive a wedge between voters and a particular party or candidate. Gun control,especially in the south,can be a wedge issue. ("Those fancy-pants liberals’ll pry this gun out of my cold dead hands..") Vouchers become a wedge issue when the term is used as code for "let’s get your kids out of those classes where they have to sit alongside black children."
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Category Archives: Gay Rights
Dorothy Has Left Kansas
Hellfire Nation, a recent book by political science professor James Morone, examines American history through the lens of moral and religious fervor, and makes a pretty good case for the proposition that America is preoccupied with sin and salvation?often to the detriment of national interest or even common sense. The hysterical backlash against recent progress on gay rights certainly supports his thesis.
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Scalia and the Culture Wars
Lawrence affirms the proposition that the Constitution protects a ‘zone of privacy’ from government regulation. Scalia understands that. His angry dissent clearly sets out his belief that "a governing majority’s belief that certain sexual behavior is immoral and unacceptable constitutes a rational basis for regulation." Scalia goes further: he asserts that "there is no right to liberty under the Due Process Clause, though today’s opinion repeatedly makes that claim."
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Out From Under the Rocks
As the local readers of this column know, I also write a twice-monthly column for the Indianapolis Star, devoted to civil liberties and public policy issues. From time to time, I use that forum to comment on issues involving sexual orientation, civil rights, the recent Texas sodomy case, and most recently, the Massachusetts marriage decision. Whenever homosexuality is the subject, I can expect lots of negative responses–more often than not, anonymous.
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A Dangerous Year
The most serious potential consequence of this backlash is the proposed constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman. The President and a number of members of Congress have expressed support for such an amendment. (They can read the polls, although the evidence would suggest they can’t–or don’t–read much else.)
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