GOP demanding Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriage

[davidn3600]

Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kansas, and other conservative members of Congress say they will attempt to introduce in the coming days a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

Following the Supreme Court's ruling deeming the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, several Republicans expressed their disappointment with the decision and vowed to take action. Apparently, this means an amendment to the Constitution.

"This Court has taken it upon itself the radical attempt to redefine marriage," Huelskamp said, standing outside the Supreme Court. "I think what gets lost in this judicial attempt to short-circuit the democratic process is the needs of our children…. Every child deserves a mommy and a daddy and with this decision they undercut the needs of our children."

http://news.yahoo.com/house-gop-pushes-constitutional-amendment-banning-same-sex-202018408.html

Its my personal belief that when politicians start saying we need to pass something "to protect the children," it usually means they are desperate and are about to pass something the violates your rights.

[Skinner]

1. Rofl.

What a joke.

[Kurovski]

43. Hey, they're gonna end Obamacare too.

Don't you ever read nothing on the internet!??!

[tex-wyo-dem]

46. Yeah, as soon as their base starts getting...

Their bloomers in a bunch they throw our some bulls hit vote to repeal "Obamacare"...I have a feeling this is just bluster in an attempt to keep them in line. Red meat, you know.

[Rex]

2. THIS is what the GOP worries about!

Fucking idiots. Goodluck with that you fools.

[Vietnameravet]

3. two seperate nations

We are really two separate people living on the same land mass.

.Seriously, more and more it seems like the old pre-Civil war era..

Our values are so different we cant even talk with each other..Back then some believed in equality and others believed in the master slave relationship..

More and more our fundamental values today are in conflict and I wonder how it will all end..

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. The same way it ended last time I fear

No, I am not looking forwards to it. 20 M dead and 100 m refugees is no joke. (That's an estimate of current population and modern civil wars and casualties).

[LibAsHell]

44. We will lean progressively more and more to the left on social issues

Everyone. Succeeding generations of conservatives will abandon their "traditional values" over time. American society will become more secular and more progressive.

Time is all that's needed. A lot of it.

[tex-wyo-dem]

47. I totally agree with you...

It's always been this way and the RW regressives will always fight kicking and screaming into the future, but will eventuality accept it. They absolutely hate change...they fear it. But just as it's unthinkable now that barely 50 years ago a black person in the south couldn't use the same toilet or drinking fountain as a white person, so will restricting gay marriage be viewed a few years from now.

[Jackpine Radical]

68. We were a helluva lot more socially liberal in the 70's than now.

At least in many ways. We at least respected knowledge & science.

The rise of insane fundamentalism twisted this culture beyond recognition.

[silvershadow]

70. Yes, that, and the demise of the Fairness Doctrine, and the changing of the rules on media ownership

which allowed them to buy up all the media and fill the airwaves with the likes of Rush Limpballs, spewing forth hate and disinformation. It's been a steady attack since the 70's, and it's a whole different world than when I grew up.

[savalez]

75. That's probably the crux of it right there. n/t

[silvershadow]

77. I am sure of it. Control the media, and you can control the entire narrative, regardless of what's

really going on at street level.

[love_katz]

85. ^^^^^This^^^^^

Insane fundamentalism = double speak: night is day, up is down, love is hate, ad nauseum.

And every time we try to have a reasonable discussion on any issue, they twist and spin it as fast as they can.

Too bad we can't hook us some generators to them...we could provide enough energy to power huge cities.

[cali]

58. nonsense. we're one nation under the corporations

it's nothing like the pre-civil war era.

[Thinkingabout]

4. Probably will never happen and would not be ratified. The same group continues to vote on

Repealing the ACA, get the same results and does it again. Now for the Goofy Old Party.

[Ken Burch]

10. Good point. They couldn't even pass the "Human Life Amendment" under Reagan

and with a GOP Senate and a totally cowed Dem House.

[BlueCheese]

5. Good luck with that.

Never going to happen.

[Mr. David]

6. Failed before it started. 13 States have equality laws in their books.

And those same 13 is the 1/3 that will *block* any anti-gay amendments plus a few more.

[LeftofObama]

7. I was just about to post the exact same thing.

It would never be ratified.

[corkhead]

79. that won't stop the Republicon PTB from banging their knuckle-dragging base's head against the wall

They know it has no chance; they are pissing down the legs of their constituents and telling them it's raining.

[karynnj]

37. 13 is 26% - not 1/3

However, I think the DOMA decision is the turning point. No one can argue that civil unions are almost as good. I assume many CU states become marriage equality states.

[MNBrewer]

52. 2/3s can propose, but it takes 3/4s to ratify

and 74% is less than that

[customerserviceguy]

62. The next milestone

is for a state that has stained it's constitution with homophobia to reverse that. I know, it was done in Maine, but the legislature and governor had already approved marriage equality, we need this to happen in a state where that didn't occur. Oregon would be my guess to be the state that throws off the shackles.

[Fearless]

59. Its fourteen with California.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Collective guffaws

[Ken Burch]

11. Will they also push for a "3/5ths Vote Amendment" now that the VRA has been castrated? n/t.

[arely staircase]

12. another reason to vote democratic

nt

[William769]

13. Well good luck with that.

Support is over 50% for marriage equality in the U.S. You all have to remember it's not just the red States that will be ratifying the amendment.

With that said you all can go take a long walk off a short pier in the everglades.

[pnwmom]

14. This is why DOMA was supported by liberals years ago. At that time there was a big push

for an Amendment, and if it had passed Congress, it probably could have gotten approval in 3/4 of the states pretty easily. So progressives in Congress supported DOMA to head off a worse possibility -- an amendment that would be much harder to ever overturn.

[Ms. Toad]

18. Plese don't. Not today.

It was rationalized as being needed to head off an amendment, rather than actually being needed. In the same way that removing trans* people from ENDA was rationalized as necessary to pass an act that *still* has not passed - despite throwing trans* people under the bus because it was necessary.

Today is a day to celebrate - not to make the LGBT members of DU relive being under the bus in the largest single disappointment during the presidency of Bill Clinton by continuing to rationalize that being under the bus was necessary for our own well being.

[pnwmom]

23. Today is a day of celebration.

But opinions will always differ.

In the same year that DOMA was passed, Hawaii’s Supreme Court decided to allow same-sex marriage based on equal protection of the laws – and then Hawaiian voters in 1998 passed a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. (Thirty other states have similar constitutional bans.) The mood of the country was very different in that era.

[Ms. Toad]

32. I lived through that era - and am a member of the LGBT community.

I know what the mood was like then. I heard the rationalizations then - including from our then current president.

And I really don't need to hear, today, that the vile law that was shoved down our throats by a president in my own party - only a portion of which has been declared unconstitutional - was passed for my own protection. Particularly since the portion of the law which prevents my marriage from being recognized still exists. That is like telling blacks on the day that Brown v. the Board of Education was decided that your prior support for separate but (not) equal was for their own protection, because if you hadn't gone along separate something much worse would have happened.

It isn't ever really necessary to repeat those rationalizations (regardless of whether you believed them) and today is a particularly insensitive day to drag them out again.

[Gravitycollapse]

51. What a steaming pile. Good lord.

[MNBrewer]

53. BULL FUCKING CRAP

DOMA was passed because it COULD be. Democrats were pleased as punch to dance on the grave of GBLT equality at that point. It wasn't passed to head off a constitutional amendment, it was passed out of PURE HUBRIS on the part of heterosexual supremacists. (including Senator Paul Wellstone).

[Thinkingabout]

15. I forgot, this is the party of smaller government, except when they want to be in private decisions.

The same party of we have too much regulation, oh and the wide stand but that's okay.

[Jefferson23]

16. Really?? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

[Ms. Toad]

17. You had to know that one was coming.

But - it's way too late for that. Even if they get it through Congress, by the time it reaches the states which must ratify it, same gender marriage will be a non-issue.

And, I'll be sure to pass his concern on to my daughter who has denied the right to a legal relationship with both of her parents for the last 15 years expressly because her parents' marriage is not recognized in Ohio.

[DCBob]

19. Folks this is what we have to look forward to if we also lose the Senate and the WH.

I think many here don't realize what these RW assholes are prepared to do to this country if they ever get complete control again.

[wandy]

40. Thank you for that, less we all forget what the problem is...

End the republican menace!

[politicasista]

45. +1

Keep those eyes on the prize.

[cui bono]

20. "Every child deserves a mommy and a daddy"

How the fuck do they plan to do that? Even if they got same sex marriage legislated as unconstitutional, if that's the reason they did it then it stands to reason that they also need to put in place some legislated method of providing children with mommies and daddies. So are they planning on forced marriages and adoptions??? Idiotic bigots.

First of all, Obama isn't going to sign any anti-same sex marriage legislation. Not to mention the fact that Prop 8 got voted down for the reason that the state didn't want to defend it. Do they think Obama, after suffering temporary insanity and signing said legislation, would then have his admin defend it all the way to SCOTUS?

[AverageMe]

56. The President does not sign Amendments to the Constitution

[Motown_Johnny]

21. Good, I hope Conservative donors sink all their money into this effort

since it's passing is nearly a political impossibility.


You would need 38 states to ratify it and Same Sex Marriage is already legal in 13 states.



This looks like one more way that the Conservative Crooks can con people into giving them money.

[premium]

22. What a fucking tool.

We have far worse problems in this country and this is what they come up with?
Don't these idiots realize what it takes to get an amendment to the Constitution?

OTOH, this may be a good thing for us, maybe America will finally see just how radical the GOP has become and vote these assclowns out of office.
One can only hope.

[arcane1]

30. This is just posturing to trick seniors into sending them more campaign cash.

That, and they're freakin' dumb-asses.

[premium]

34. I've no doubt about that.

Sad thing is, it'll work.
I live in a very red town in Nevada and even our most ardent repub. are getting disgusted with the GOP. Alot of people I know and talk to are seriously thinking of changing their party affiliation to Independent.

[The Straight Story]

24. Good.....

Cause all they are doing is losing more and more votes and making themselves look like idiots to more and more people.

They could change things in their party, but they won't because they are bigots - and the hispanics they are catering to won't fall for it, the fundies are getting to be less and less in this country, and the more crap like this they spout the more irrelevant they will become and the more true progress we will have.

[Initech]

25. So let me see if I can dissect Republican "logic"

So they don't want gay people to get married, but divorce is perfectly acceptable.

They don't want young people to have sex before marriage, but the states where abstinence is taught have the highest rates of abortion and STDs.

They don't want young people to have kids, but it's perfectly OK for someone who's famous for being a "teen mom" to wax her 3 year old's unibrow.

Yeah, they're fucking stupid.

[auntsue]

26. if every kid deserves a "mommy & daddy"

divorce should be abolished...............

[arcane1]

27. "Every child deserves a mommy and a daddy" but they NEVER try to ban divorce.

Nor to they try to require remarriage if one spouse dies.

Idiots. I relish in their impotent rage!

[NoPasaran]

28. That ship sailed so long ago Jean Valjean was pulling one of the oars

But feel free to waste your time and especially your money.

[kestrel91316]

29. "....Every child deserves a mommy and a daddy...." - Well, then, stop getting divorced, dummies.

[still_one]

31. Please do it. You have already declared war on women, and Mexican Americans, now you want to add

Gays to your hate

They will be history like the whigs if they keep this up

[Moonwalk]

35. Add gays? The GOP have always had gays on their hate list. Topping it, in fact--

And, outside of a handful of Log Cabin-ers, alienated that group.

[jeff47]

33. Please proceed, Republicans. (nt)

[reflection]

78. .

[Zen Democrat]

36. That's so funny. They really are that clueless.

[roamer65]

38. They don't have the 38 states to ratify nor 2/3 of each house of Congress.

That dog don't hunt...losers.

One thing I can see happening is partitioning of the country much like slave states vs free states, especially if the Supremes won't knock down the bans and keep punting on the issue.

If you think I'm wrong, just look and see where the resistance will be the strongest to gay marriage...the old states of the Confederacy.

[Dawson Leery]

39. 2/3rds?

They don't have 40 votes in the Senate to ratify.
Some states with Rethug Governors have Democratic legislatures. They would not get close to having the amendment ratified.

[MrScorpio]

41. It must really suck being a hateful bigot these days. nt

[Chisox08]

42. Can we get an amendment banning bat shit crazy Republicons?

[DRoseDARs]

48. It's my belief that when politicians say "protect the children" they have several gigs of child porn

Much like how virulent anti-gays often turn out to be big ole cock-gobblin' goblins themselves or, in Michelle Bachmann's case, married to one.

[MNBrewer]

50. +1

[MNBrewer]

49. Bring it on, bitches!

[Politicalboi]

54. If ONLY they said this yesterday over the voting rights act

They might actually stand a chance at getting minorities in their party.

I can't wait till the lawsuits come so red states have to recognize gay marriage.

[Amonester]

55. And it also usually means they are about to waste another load of taxpayers' money

Since they never work for what they get paid for.

That's also another reason to work to defeat them in sixteen months.

[Arugula Latte]

57. This should win the youngsters over to the GOP.

Yeah, good plan, Republicans. Run with it.

[rpannier]

60. Jobs bill No. Aid for the poor No

Amendment banning gay marriage. They seem to find time for that
What happened to focusing in on economic issues?

[customerserviceguy]

61. We've already got thirteen states

that have equal marriage. That's enough right there to block any amendment from becoming law, even if it could get through both houses of Congress.

We're not in Kansas anymore, Timmy!

[PoliticAverse]

63. PAST AND PRESENT PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION REGARDING MARRIAGE

http://lawreview.wustl.edu/inprint/82-3/p%20611%20Stein%20book%20pages.pdf

"One hundred and thirty-three proposed amendments to the United States Constitution concerning marriage were
introduced before 2002."

[MineralMan]

64. A desperation move that has no chance of success, and they know it.

No such Amendment will ever be enacted and ratified. Republicans are morons. They are just posturing.

[Dash87]

65. What about the children!?

Just about the laziest appeal there is.

[GoCubsGo]

66. Meanwhile, 14 million STILL looking for work...

...and STILL no jobs bill. Useless fucking assholes.

[toby jo]

67. Good. That'll give them some busy dead end work & keep em off stealing something real.

[closeupready]

69. Why are so many Republicans so fixated on gays and gay sex?

[Kablooie]

71. Also women's reproductive rights - anything vaguely related to sex is an obsession for them.

The only thing they support is the right for good old boys to have their way with women without consequences.
They are against everything else.

[closeupready]

73. Yup. I do think you nailed it.

[Rozlee]

72. Say the dinosaurs who have no clue of the demographic asteroid heading their way.

They really don't see the new generation breathing down their necks, a new generation that is more secular and less entrenched in religious dogma than they are. The US is slowly going the way of Europe every succeeding generation, with religion meaning less with each one. When I was living as a child in rural Texas, everyone went to church unless they were bed bound and even then, the priest or preacher went to your house to make sure you weren't jacking off or doing something sinful under the sheets. Businesses were always closed on the Lord's Day, always. Then, gradually, a few started opening in the afternoons, then, after another period of time, all day long, with guilty looking shoppers furtively making their purchases. Last time I was in WV, I saw as many shoppers at Walmart as I saw streaming out of churches, which might not be significant in that neck of the woods, considering there's five churches on every damn block, even if the church is in somebody's garage. But, the younger generation is getting more and more turned off by the excessive religious posturing of the older one. I've seen it in my own family, as the 30-somethings and under get up super early on Sundays to dash out the door to weasel out of going to church, making sure their cells go to voice mail.

[love_katz]

86. Now that is...

some Good News...scratch that....it's Great News!

[Myrina]

74. Yep, the Party of Small Government and Personal Freedoms, at it again ...

[Recursion]

76. Awesome. They haven't figured out this wedges against them now

I wish Mr. Huelskamp the best, and I hope that's an issue during the mid-terms.

[obama2terms]

80. Hahaha

Like THAT will happen. 38 states are needed to ratify the amendment, and I doubt 38 states are willing to go through with that.

[Martin Eden]

81. "Every child deserves a mommy and a daddy"

Does Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kansas) honestly think prohibiting gay marriage will magically increase the number of 2-parent families? On the contrary, if anything it would add to the number of 1-parent families. A gay mom or dad isn't going to stop being gay just because Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kansas) is too small minded to tolerate a loving family that doesn't conform to his ignorant and bigoted definition.

[Sherman A1]

82. Oh, this will work out well.......

[Ruby the Liberal]

83. Way to land on the wrong side of history.

I give it a 10.0

[burnodo]

84. I dont care that what these people say is so effing stupid

I care that so many people listen to them as if what they say is credible