Comments on: With GOP disaster looming, there’s always gay marriage

By: David Deyo

David Deyo — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 18:23:16 +0000

Well John, there’s another view to take of marriage rights. There’s good reason why the religious right and social conservatives are so rabid about stopping marriage rights. They understand something that many in the gay community who think of such rights as secondary haven’t considered (in my view).

Marriage rights are the linchpin. Once there is federal recognition of gay marriage rights, all else falls into place. Let’s take job discrimination, for example. How do you legally support firing someone on the basis of a personal trait that can be expressed with federal sanction via marriage? Or let’s take housing discrimination. How do you legally support denial of housing on the basis of a trait that has federal sanction by way of marriage recognition?

The short answer is, you can’t really. They might try. But judges will unavoidably be forced to point to marriage rights and say that discrimination on the basis of a trait that can be sanctioned via marriage cannot be upheld.

Why should we chip away for our equality one sliver at a time when we can smash legal discrimination with a single initiative? The right knows this and knows it well. The truth is that this fact has a lot more to do with the opposition to marriage rights than any feigned desire to preserve the family or save the sanctity of the institution.

By: In its death throes, GOP will say anything to cling to power at centerblue.org

In its death throes, GOP will say anything to cling to power at centerblue.org — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 14:46:09 +0000

[...] Bush and Cheney are not alone in their vile rhetoric. In Tennessee, Republicans recently aired two racially tinged commercials against Harold Ford (who is black in a deeply conservative state): a universally condemned one in which a white female stripper asks Ford to call him (evoking interracial sex anxieties for voters) and a radio ad that beats jungle drums whenever Ford is discussed. In Virginia, George Allen slammed Jim Webb over fictional novels Webb had written describing hellish life in Vietnam during that conflict. And, of course, there’s always gay marriage. [...]

By: centerblue

centerblue — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 18:23:49 +0000

The battle against employment discrimination has been a long one. ENDA (employment non discrimination act) has been sitting in Congress for many years without action by the Republicans. Another factor is that much of American business, especially among the Fortune 500, have proactively enacted policies of non-discrimination in employment, hiring, benefits and so forth regardless of what the government has on its books. They know to have these proactive policies makes good sense, since they need talent wherever they find it, among straights or gays.

Marriage, though, is something that only government can do something about. I’m not sure that employment discrimination should be fully resolved before we address marriage, since the two are different issues. I think the biggest thing is that gay marriage came just a bit early for the relatively conservative American public to deal with…it might have gone over better if we’d let the issue settle in Europe for a while longer, to demonstrate that the world didn’t end when countries like Spain approved gay marriage.

By: John Kusters

John Kusters — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 18:15:51 +0000

I was listening to Al Franken on the way into work this morning, and he had an interesting thought. A lot of us in the gay community are working towards equal marriage rights, when, according to Al, there are still 33 states in the Union where you can be fired just for being gay. I’m wondering which has more impact, the right to marry or the right to be protected in your job against discrimination. It’s a tough choice, but I’m leaning towards job discrimination as a more fundamental problem. I need to check the numbers and find out which states continue to discriminate against gay people. Franken also suggested that employment rights might be an easier case to make, as more people would support anti-discrimination laws than would support equal marriage laws.

Just something for me to ponder that I thought I’d mention to you for your input.

Have a great weekend!!

JOhn.