Gay Bashing: It's All the Rage

On Saturday, we wrote about the wing-nut, bi-coastal hate-fest where hundreds of homophobes were gathering to show their unity and determination to keep you and your family from enjoying the same legal rights and protections that are granted to heterosexual citizens.

We wouldn’t need give these numbskulls an ounce of our energy if they were not successful luring all Republican -- and many Democratic -- presidential candidates to their side of the marriage equality issue.

And what exactly is their side? According to Scott Lively, co-founder of the group Watchmen on the Walls:

“We view homosexuals like we view alcoholics: unfortunate people trapped in a bad lifestyle. Like alcoholics, they should have the right, if they reject therapy, to enjoy privacy in their own homes. But they should not be allowed to publicly recruit others to their lifestyle. Pubic advocacy of homosexuality should be, like public drunkenness, culturally discouraged to minimize its impact on society.”

Crazy as it sounds, these hate-based fringe groups continue to hold sway over what lawmakers do and say.

Just yesterday, Tony Perkins, who heads up the anti-gay group American Family Association (AFA), announced that he had a private meeting with Rudy Giuliani who promised – as president -- he would support an amendment to the US Constitution to ban equal marriage rights for same-sex couples.

And recently, Barack Obama revealed that he would be touring South Carolina with the “notorious gay basher, gospel singer Donnie McClurkin.”

According to author and political analyst, Earl Ofari Hutchenson:

“The Grammy winning black gospel singer's last effort on the political scene was his song and shill for Bush's reelection at the Republican National Convention in 2004. Obama has hitched his string to McClurkin's high flying gay bash kite in part out of religious belief (he purports to be somewhat of an evangelical), in bigger part because he's falling further and further behind Hillary Clinton with the black vote in South Carolina and everywhere else, and in the biggest part of all because he hopes that what worked for Bush's reelection will work for him.”

Everyone knows that gay-bashing is the easiest way to score points with bigots of every color. Opposing rights for LGBTQ families is a cheap shot. Maintaining a system of separate and unequal access to civil rights hurts the whole society.

This group of wing-nuts is actually made up of many smaller, separate groups of political and religious intolerance. While they are able to coalesce around their shared hatred for you and me, if given the slightest chance to turn on each other for their differences, rest assured, they will!

That is why all of us, the gay, the lesbian, the bisexual, the transgendered, the transsexual, queer, questioning and our allies, must stand together for the rights of each other instead of letting lawmakers give rights to some, but not all of us – as in the recent draft of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) which excludes transgendered people from its umbrella of protection.

Gay Camp Pain Contributions

Is it naive to continue to dream that the American people can come together to drag this country from the jaws of corporate control, political power and greed?

As we continue to hold onto hope, we occasionally find ourselves doused with cold reality -- like today, when we saw an article in today’s RainbowZine that Hillary Clinton is raking in donations from LGBTQ activists and celebrities.

Considering she does NOT support equal marriage rights, is a hawk on foreign policy, takes money from corporate lobbyists, it makes us wonder why…

Do they believe she is the most qualified candidate? Or is she the candidate most likely to WIN?

The way the media and conservative pundits see it, Hillary is the inevitable Democratic Presidential candidate. Unfortunately, we believe that Karl Rove and his talking thugs will do whatever it takes to bring her down – AFTER she wins the primary. And if Hillary is the Democratic nominee, after they destroy her, the Republican will be a shoe-in!

After all, the majority of voters would NOT want to "waste" their vote on a 3rd party candidate, right?

In America, we have a 2 party system that is largely controlled by corporate interests. Throughout history, both the Dems and the Repugnicans have worked together to rig the system so that a third party candidate will have a very difficult, if not impossible, time even getting their name on the ballot, let alone participating in the debates (have you seen a third party candidate debate on any network?)

We are often cautioned against casting our vote for a 3^rd party candidate lest we waste it - or worse -- because it will hurt the Democrat and help to elect the Republican. Thus we are forced to choose between the lesser of two evils.

Lately, we've begun to believe that the whole notion of wasted votes is just plain ignorant! We only waste our vote when we spend on a candidate that we don't actually believe in.

What we really need to do is to educate ourselves -- and each other -- about the election process and the party system.

When all Americans finally understand that the purpose of a democracy – the reason for voting in the first place – is to cast a vote for a candidate that best represents our individual conscience -- not just someone who represents a political party that is controlled by one or more entities motivated by profits and power -- not by what is best for America.

The question is, do we have the courage, no matter what the consequences, to walk into that voting booth and pull the lever for – or write in the name of– a candidate who stands up for what is right and good?

If enough voters do that, we could change it all in one day.

Speaking of educating, the Republican Party’s platform on LGBTQ issues is as follows:

"States should not recognize gay marriage from other states: After more than two centuries of American jurisprudence, and millennia of human experience, a few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization, the union of a man and a woman in marriage. Attempts to redefine marriage in a single state or city could have serious consequences throughout the country, and anything less than a Constitutional amendment, passed by the Congress and ratified by the states, is vulnerable to being overturned by activist judges. On a matter of such importance, the voice of the people must be heard. The Constitutional amendment process guarantees that the final decision will rest with the American people and their elected representatives. President Bush will also vigorously defend the Defense of Marriage Act, which was supported by both parties and passed by 85 votes in the Senate. This common sense law reaffirms the right of states not to recognize same-sex marriages licensed in other states.

Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage: We strongly support a Constitutional amendment that fully protects marriage, and we [oppose] forcing states to recognize other living arrangements as equivalent to marriage. The well-being of children is best accomplished [when] nurtured by their mother & father anchored by the bonds of marriage. We believe that legal recognition and the accompanying benefits afforded couples should be preserved for that unique and special union of one man and one woman which has historically been called marriage.”

And the Democratic Party platform is not much better:

“We support full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and seek equal responsibilities, benefits, and protections for these families. In our country, marriage has been defined at the state level for 200 years, and we believe it should continue to be defined there. We repudiate President Bush's divisive effort to politicize the Constitution by pursuing a "Federal Marriage Amendment." Our goal is to bring Americans together, not drive them apart.”

As for the Greens:

“In keeping with the Green Key Values of diversity, social justice and feminism, we support full legal and political equality for all persons, regardless of sex, gender, or sexual orientation.

a. The Green Party affirms the rights of all individuals to freely choose intimate partners, regardless of their sex, gender, or sexual orientation.

b. We support the recognition of equal rights of persons gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender to housing, jobs, civil marriage, medical benefits, child custody, and in all areas of life provided to all other citizens.

c. We support the inclusion of language in state and federal anti-discrimination law that ensures the rights of intersex individuals and prohibits discrimination based on gender identity, characteristics, and expression. We are opposed to intersex genital mutilation.

d. We support the right of all persons to self-determination with regard to gender identity and sex. We therefore support the right of intersex and transgender individuals to be free from coercion and involuntary assignment of gender or sex. We support access to medical and surgical treatment for assignment or reassignment of gender or sex, based on informed consent.

e. We support legislation against all forms of hate crimes, including those directed against people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, transgender, and intersex."

We suggest you check out where each party and their candidates stand on all of the issues. Until then, we’ll just leave it right there for you to contemplate…