D.C.
State of the Union time! It’s like Presidential New Year’s Resolutions. A lot of news people have blathered that Obama isn’t going to get done practically any of the things he says he’ll get done. Exactly! Just like a New Year’s resolution. But every President does this, promise a whole batch of stuff, and we’re count ourselves lucky if 30% of it happens. Bush never did a State of the Union where he promised to plunge us into a deregulated financial nightmare, but he did. Just like no one ever makes a New Year’s resolution to cheat on their wife, but it happens.
So, if we are to take the specious reasoning of “Said in the State of the Union= Doesn’t Get Done” and “Not Said in the State of the Union= Does Get Done,” then we can all look forward to the dismantling of the Defense of Marriage Act this year! Because the only mention of gays in the State of the Union was buried in a long list of people that it shouldn’t matter if they can serve in the military or not.
“When you put on that uniform, it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, Asian or Latino, conservative or liberal, rich or poor, gay or straight.”
Did you miss it? We were at the end there. It was a momentus occasion, as we all remember the last two years being a dogfight to get the rights of rich Asian conservatives to fight in America’s army. It was curious to be said this way, almost as if Obama was shopping for porn at the grocery store, and in his shame, decided to buy Peanut Butter, corn chips and Fruit Stripe gum to balance it out.
I understand what he was doing. The theme of his State of the Union was “let’s get along,” and he definitely meant to stress ‘conservative or liberal’ and ‘rich or poor’ more than the others.
There will be no further gay support Obama, given his re-election campaign, which won’t include an endorsement of marriage equality (Though for the life of me, I don’t know why. The people he’d be reaching by withholding support already assume he secretly supports it, which he does). No, instead, he will remind everyone what a great job he did getting rid of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Any DOMA repeal will wait until after 2012, when a repeal bill will be signed by President Obama or vetoed by President Someone Else.
I’ve said it before. My expectations for him are low. I don’t need him to open the door, I just need him not to lock it.
WASHINGTON
The Marriage Equality bill advanced out of the Senate committee Thursday, which means on to the Senate Senate, where it will be voted on (now with the necessary votes to pass) at an undetermined date. If and when the bill becomes law by the Spring, a Prop 8 style “citizen’s vote” will take place, where the rights of gays to share health benefits with each other will be voted on by the people I avoid eye contact with on airplanes.
Do the gays have the majority approval in a state like Washington?
If you believe polls that ask a clear question, “Would you vote to repeal a Washington gay marriage law?”, then the results are 47% or 54%.
However, if you believe the National Organization for Marriage’s poll, then it’s 36%. HOWEVER STILL, NOM likes everything straight, except their questions. Here’s their poll, courtesy of The Stranger:
“As you probably know, since 2010 Washington has had a civil union law which gives gay couples all the legal rights of married couples. Now some people want to pass a new law, which changes the definition of marriage, so that it is no longer between a man and a woman, but between any two people. Do you feel it is necessary or not necessary to pass now a new law which changes the definition of marriage in this way?
36% NECESSARY
57% NOT NECESSARY
7% DON’T KNOW/NO RESPONSE”
About halfway through that spiel, the NOM poller must have seen the eyes glaze over on the harried mother he was talking to outside the Target in Yakima and knew he had hit Sneaky Polling Data paydirt!
Let me ask this question of all children under five who are an only child: Do you feel it’s necessary for your mother to have a new baby, changing the definition of your family, so that it is no longer just you getting 100% of her attention, but rather 50% of her love at best? The poll results should be interesting.
NEW JERSEY
Governor Chris Christie may one day be running as the Republican candidate for President, which is why he has said he will veto any gay marriage bill his New Jersey congress passes. He may also one day be running as the Republican candidate for President in a more gay-accepting 2016, which is why he followed it up with “Why should what I say or do matter? The people should decide!” Eh. More “citizen’s votes.”
Watch Newark mayor Cory Booker condemn the naming of children “Cory,” as they may one day be respected public figures. Sorry, he’s condemning Christie’s remarks about the referendum, referendums on civil rights in general, and treatment of gays as second-class citizens.
So, we’re in agreement. No citizen’s votes on civil rights!
MAINE
Gays in Maine could very well win back their right to marry in a 2012 “citizen’s vote.” In 2009, the gay background characters in a Stephen King novel were granted the right to marry the person they loved, and that November that was taken away from them by a citizen’s vote.
UGH.
This is the shit I hate. I was against a potential 2012 vote to repeal Prop 8 in California, both on a matter or principle and on a matter of it would be devastating to the landmark case being argued right now (their chief point is don’t put civil rights to a popular vote). And I took this stance, even though it very clearly would pass and would give me the immediate right to marry the man I love by this Christmas if we wanted.
UGH.
The Advocate op-ed argues that Maine’s government is way too Tea Party to allow a repeal of this on its own. And what about states where the citizens are ahead of the public officials? What about their chances? Is this an acceptable hypocrisy?
No, it’s not. I can’t support this, even though it may pass. Use the money to pass it legislatively. And if you can’t, then we gotta wait. Last time I checked, the Tea Party wasn’t made of unbreakable diamonds, and minds can be changed. If the Prop 8 trial ends at the Supreme Court, as it will, and it ends with a positive outcome, which it might, it won’t only undo Prop 8, it would provide legal standing to repeal Maine’s Prop 8 kissing cousin Question 1.
Our dollars, our time and our voices should be spent on that trial, on individual state mandates, and on changing minds. President Obama supports the repeal of DOMA and says the matter should be left to the states.
“Whoopdi-shit,” says every gay in South Carolina. ”I’m not waiting til 2050 to get my Mrytle Beach wedding!”
I don’t think it will take that long. Minds and hearts are changing faster than we can count. We just have to make sure our progress outpaces the melting of the polar ice caps. HAHA! Too real. Just relax, we’ll all be drowned soon.
This is the one area I will see eye to eye with on NOM, who released this statement on the news of the Maine vote:
“With Gay Marriage Advocates filing an SSM Initiative in Maine…
…will other gay marriage activists renounce their mantra that “civil rights should never be voted on by the people”?
They’ve been saying that, oh, in every state where NOM has been working to allow the people to vote to decide the issue.
Or was that argument of theirs just a canard?”
For those readers who don’t have a 2012 Word-a-Day Calendar, like NOM’s Thomas Peters, a “canard” is a groundless belief. That, or an airplane with horizontal stabilizing.
1 comment
Michael Russo says:
Feb 11, 2012
Great breakdown. You were here when you wrote this