Pay Back Time?

Just when it seems things couldn’t get worse for the Republican Party, along comes more bad news: Gay couples in the United States have skyrocketed.

A new study based on Census data finds a 30 percent jump in self-identified same-sex couples between 2000 and 2005, from nearly 600,000 to almost 777,000. But the increase is even more dramatic in Iowa, where couples shot up by 58 percent, to 5,833. [...]

But both the policies being advanced by Republicans in office and the party platforms themselves have gone to great lengths to deny gay rights. Now it may be payback time.

I suppose I can buy into the notion of “payback”. I would love to see the Republicans get their right-wing-fascist collective asses kicked in this election. That is what I emotionally feel. But in politics, it’s often wise not to give into your more carnal instincts. Instead, it’s a time to stop the name calling and raise the bar to a new level. This new level that I talk about isn’t difficult to achieve. The Republicans collectively, with their President behind them, tried to pass a constitutional amendment to make any bonds that our families could achieve illegal. That is the level of where they are at, but it gets better. They weren’t even honest about trashing our families or our rights, because after the President achieved his election by scaring the crap out of the Christian conservatives, what do you think he did with his promise to pursue a constitutional amendment to “protect the sanctity of marriage” from gay couples? He did nothing. He never mentioned it again. It went away. And now there are rumblings of blowing the dust off of it and trying it again in this election, and possibly in the 2008 presidential election. This is the level of the bar they raised, and let me tell you, it’s down in the gutter.

So, for us to be a bit above that won’t be a daunting task. All we have to do is show ourselves honestly and openly. The new study points to a big increase in the number of gay couples since these anti-gay amendments started springing up around the country. I don’t believe that to be true. We’ve always been around. The difference is, anytime you start demonizing people and talk of putting them into second-class status for the foreseeable future, and putting that in people’s faces, many people will come out fighting. What is our weapon? It’s honesty, openness, and to show people what we really are.

We are your brothers, sisters, parents, fire fighters, soldiers, next door neighbor, friend, sons, daughters, cousins, aunts, uncles, policemen, doctors, lawyers... and on and on. We are everywhere and in every single aspect of American life. This study simply shows that many of us realize what is at stake.

Iowa’s Republican platform spares almost no aspect of gay life. It calls for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and for abstinence outside of marriage - meaning gay people shouldn’t have sex, period. It opposes adoption by same-sex couples and “protected class” status based on sexual orientation - i.e. legal protection against discrimination. It’s against “the teaching of homosexual behavior as a normal, acceptable or alternative lifestyle.” [...]

But it’s significant that the number of self-identified same-sex couples grew so much while all that was going on. The authors suggest, quite plausibly, that it was a motivating factor. They note that the 10 states with the largest increases in same-sex couples, such as Washington state and New Hampshire, saw some of the nastiest political battles and anti-gay ballot measures since 2000. [...]

Instead of demonizing the Republican Party for what they have tried to do to us, perhaps it’s time to just continue to be ourselves. They have done more to themselves than we, as a minority, could ever do to them. They have lied to their electorate about us on so many levels; the threat we pose, how we are going to ruin their very way of life, but most importantly, they lied about their motivation in getting those conservative voters to the polls. Now, people see that, not only with the gay marriage issue, but the whole issue of their rhetoric on terror is really wearing quite thin. They use language that suggests that if the Democrats gain one house of Congress, the President will be unable to complete the things that need to be done to combat terror. Two years ago, people bought that. Today, that’s a tough sell.

Polls already show that a majority of young people don’t see same-sex marriage as the big deal the right wing is trying to make it.

The real lesson here is that trampling on the rights of any group may win some elections, but it won’t win people over in the long run. I suspect we’ll see evidence of that Nov. 7. (source)

The real problem with America is that it is uneducated (or doesn’t care) about the basic issues of freedom that is the cornerstone of our democracy. One of the concepts that we have at least strived to achieve in the past is that we will not drop to the level of those who torture and treat others with a total disregard of human rights. We’ve been through all of this before many times, but our memory is short. It wasn’t all that long ago that African Americans strived for equality. And even they, while never letting anyone forget what the white man did to them (and they shouldn’t forget), are all too willing to say that our struggle if very different from them.

Is it really? They had to drink at different water fountains from whites, go to different schools, suffer unspeakable crimes of violence against them, could not marry, and later, when they could marry, could only marry someone of their race. And later than that, had to fight for the right to marry someone of a different race.

We have our own water fountain to drink from as well. We can go to any school, if we can suffer through the intolerance that some schools offer. We have no benefits for our partners in most states, and in 34 states in this country, it is still legal to fire us for being gay. We suffer unspeakable crimes of violence against us as well. We are unable to marry, except in Massachusetts, and even there, the spouses from those marriages are given no federal recognition because of the national Defense of Marriage Act. Indeed, not even a former gay congressman.

Former Massachusetts Rep. Gerry Studds, the first openly gay member of Congress, died Saturday at 69 after developing two blood clots, doctors said. Studds’ husband, Dean Hara, has since been informed that -- unlike heterosexual spouses of former members -- he can’t collect on his deceased husband’s pension.

The couple married in 2004 after Massachusetts legalized gay marriage, but the federal government does not consider Hara a legitimate “spouse."

When a former member of Congress dies, his or her spouse is eligible to collect the member’s pension. But the Defense of Marriage Act forbids the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages or civil unions, and pension administrators say they cannot release the funds to any relative other than a federally recognized spouse.

The Defense of Marriage Act -- passed in 1996 and opposed by only 67 members -- defines a spouse as “a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or wife." (source)

Maybe it is payback time. If it is, and the Republicans lose big time in November, a part of me will take a lot of satisfaction from that. But we should remember that the Democrats haven’t always been our friends either. They have merely been a party of less disgust around our issues. They are lukewarm on national protections for us in the workplace, health care for our partners, and have stated that they do not endorse full marriage equality.

We can’t look to either party for anything. They are both made up of self serving politicians who care nothing about anything, other than holding on to their power. If we are to achieve equality, it will have to come from us, to show people truth, and who we are. This takes time, but the younger generation are getting it.

In the meantime, aside from a possible ass kicking of the Republican Party, more of this crap will continue:

States with gay marriage bans on November ballot

ARIZONA
Amendment would limit marriage to unions of one man and one woman and foreclose the possibility of civil unions.

COLORADO
Amendment would limit marriage to unions of one man and one woman. Also, a separate referendum would extend many rights to domestic partners.

IDAHO - ("Peds queers fags" article)
Amendment would limit marriage to unions of one man and one woman and foreclose the possibility of civil unions.

SOUTH CAROLINA
Amendment would limit marriage to unions of one man and one woman and foreclose the possibility of civil unions.

SOUTH DAKOTA
Amendment would limit marriage to unions of one man and one woman and foreclose the possibility of civil unions.

TENNESSEE
Amendment would limit marriage to unions of one man and one woman.

VIRGINIA
Amendment would limit marriage to unions of one man and one woman, foreclose the possibility of civil unions and endanger existing legal protections for unmarried couples.

WISCONSIN
Amendment would limit marriage to unions of one man and one woman, foreclose the possibility of civil unions and endanger existing legal protections for unmarried couples.

Source