One of my closest friends called the other day, both he and his wife have been dealing with people they know who habitually parrot back nonsensical "the gays are attacking us because they won't let us attack them!" talking points. They live in one of the more conservative parts of the United States, and tell me of how they struggle when they hear these things, as it stands in total contradiction to reality of the Gay and Lesbian people they personally know.
Halfway through the conversation my friend asked the questions that the LGBT community as been asking since before Stonewall... "Why do the haters , because that's what I call then... believe that nonsense? Don't they know any Gay people?". I had to explain how the ultra-far right in the United States is facing a demographic and cultural shift that is moving solidly away from them and towards equality, As a result, those who have a vested interest in keeping LGBT people as the one group it is still "safe to hate" are looking at the end of their multi-million dollar gravy train of bigotry.
On that note... it's been an interesting year so far...
2013 has certainly started with a bit of a bang. Marriage equality for same sex couples was put to a vote and passed in a whole bunch of interesting places. Here in the United Kingdom we had a vote in the House of Commons on a bill to legalize Same Sex Marriage proposed by the Tory (conservative) government led by Prime Minister David Cameron, where it passed by a vote of 400 to 175.
The measure now goes on to the House of Lords for what is more or less a symbolic reading before gaining final approval.
Then hardly a week later, across the Channel, France’s lower house of parliament approved a sweeping bill to legalize gay marriage and allow same-sex couples to adopt children, handing a major legislative victory to President Francois Hollande’s Socialists on a divisive social issue.
The measure, was approved in the National Assembly by a 329-to-229 vote. The overall bill now goes to the French Senate, which is also controlled by the Socialists and their allies, which makes Marriage Equality in France pretty much a done deal, and puts France on track to join about a dozen mostly European nations that allow gay marriage.
Meanwhile, back across the Atlantic, the Illinois Senate approved a bill on Valentines day that would legalize same-sex marriage, inching the home state of President Obama closer to becoming the 10th in the nation, plus the District of Columbia, to allow gay couples the right to wed.
At the same time all this was going on, the seemingly settled decision by the Boy Scouts of America to maintain the current membership policies barring Gays and Lesbians turned out to be not so settled after all. Media reports were saying the BSA about on the verge of allowing local sponsoring organizations to make their own determinations on membership criteria. The resulting media circus / firestorm prompted a backtracking on making any decision. Kicking the can down the road to May and having the larger National Council vote on the proposed changes.
If all that wasn't interesting enough, let's throw President Obama into the mix. The President threw the American Taliban into fits of hysteria when in his 2nd Inaugural Address the President of the United States said this...
Add to that, the reintroduction of the Uniting American Families Act. House members reintroduced the bill earlier this month, for the first time, with bipartisan support . The bill would allow same-sex couples to be treated in the same way as heterosexual ones under immigration law, permitting them to petition for green cards for partners and spouses. Under the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal government does not recognize same-sex marriages that are legal on the state-level. That leads to many couples being separated by immigration law or American citizens (like oh... ME), being forced to leave the countryif they want to be with their partner.
The issue of same sex bi-national couples has even become a theme in advertising campaigns. Like this one from home decor company John Saint Denis. In this short film benefiting The Human Rights Campaign: an American and his young French partner are living in an idyllic apartment in Paris, but his company is transferring him to back to the States. He has an American Passport, but his partner does not, so he is forced to face the reality he will have to go without him.
At the end of the video people can donate directly to the Human Rights Campaign to support the fight for equality.
I have blogged at length about my views on marriage equalityand about my feelings about the Boy Scouts of America. So I won't rehash the debate here. Predictably the classic cast of characters have reacted to recent developments their usual over the top- completely devoid of logic shrieks of hysterical homophobia. Claiming any sort of rights for LGBT Americans is an "attack" on religious freedom. Even going so far as to cry that not letting anti-gay bigots actively attack the rights and lives of Gays and Lesbians is discrimination against them.
Right wing nutcase, and Gay sex obsessed hate monger Bryan Fischer rides the Waaaambulance in the express lane to crazytown.
As I told my friend on the phone the other day, logic reason, and facts are not part of the world the Fischers, Dobsons and their ilk inhabit. Or to put it in a more simple way.
