The gay marriage panic (Salt Lake Trib)

[struggle4progress]

<snip>
Republicans in the U.S. Senate are pushing hard to get a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage to the floor by July 12. That would force Sen. John Kerry to vote on the controversial issue on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, which will begin in Boston two weeks later to cement his presidential nomination.
<snip>
Why else would Sen. Orrin Hatch, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, withdraw his own effort to draft an alternative to the proposal favored by his party's leadership? And why else would the Senate leadership abandon the traditional practice of vetting various contenders for a constitutional amendment in that committee before sending a recommendation to the floor?
<snip>
... it is doubtful that the Republicans have enough votes for the current proposal to win a favorable recommendation from the Judiciary Committee, and it is even more doubtful that it could win the 67 votes necessary to pass the Senate.
Fortunately, there appear to be enough senators of both parties who recognize that a constitutional amendment is a grave step that should be avoided unless all other remedies have been exhausted. They also can see that the American people are nowhere near reaching that kind of consensus.
<snip>

http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Jun/06262004/opinion/178956.asp

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Kerry should miss that vote. Even showing up and abstaining would be

unadvisable. He'll get screwed for just walking into the Senate chambers while that vote is up.

I can only hope for rational minds in the Judiciary Committee to prevent it from leaving and going to the Senate floor.

[struggle4progress]

2. Right now, he's pretty much getting screwed anytime he walks in or out..

[TheTruthBeKnown]

3. Homo-Phobic-Sapians

Homo-Phobic-Sapians
by Larry S. Rolirad

Love can't be seen, only felt. Some don't want others to even feel love.

Some republican politicians never cease to amaze me. Take Representative Robert Talton for example. He is a state representative in Texas. Representative Talton is a republican who has been elected several times in his backwoods Texas district. He claims to be a 'Christian', but I fail to see how he follows in the footsteps of Jesus.

Robert Talton attempted to get a bill passed into law in Texas that would have made it illegal for any gay, bisexual, or lesbian to be foster parents of needy children. Talton's House Bill 194 would have required state workers to conduct investigations into the sexual orientation of prospective foster parents and current foster parents. Talton's bill also would have empowered state social workers to go up to any foster home in the state and ask what the sexual preferences of all the adults in the household were. Although the bill targeted foster parents, it is clear that Talton wanted to force his unconscionable will on every home in the state. Under Talton's law, any person who responded to the social worker by saying they were bisexual, homosexual, or lesbian would have any children in their homes removed immediately. The children would then be placed in other foster homes, or the state's homes for boys and girls. Talton's callous and inhumane bill would have severely harmed the fragile psychological states of tens of thousands of Texas children.

Bonding, or love between a child and a foster parent, didn't mean anything to Representative Talton. The only criteria for forcibly removing children is if their foster parents or caregivers were not heterosexual. So much for love. So much for compassion. So much for the best interests of the children. So much for any close bonds between the child and his caregiver. And so much for sanity.

Thankfully, Talton's bill was defeated by a democratic house. But even attempting to wage such an assault on 'nontraditional' families was deplorable. I know heterosexual relationships where there is constant tension, violence, and insecurity for a child. But to people like republican Robert Talton that doesn't matter. I suppose he would be in favor of a child living in a very abusive environment with constant wife or child beatings as long as the parents, or caregivers, were 'heterosexual'. And Robert Talton would be very opposed to children living in a very loving, nurturing environment with bisexual, homosexual, or lesbian caregivers.

I called and asked the representative's staff if Representative Talton would also want to remove children from Dick Cheney's daughter or Newt Gingrich's sister, who are both lesbians. Talton's staff refused to answer and became agitated and 'unChristian-like' at my comments.

The above example is frightening and should be unsettling to any human being and any American who has compassion towards others. It is obvious that Representative Talton would prefer that a child live in an abusive and insecure environment with two dysfunctional heterosexuals, but be opposed to a child living in a loving, supportive, and nurturing environment with bisexual, homosexual, or lesbian caregivers.

Republicans like to 'say' that they are the party of less government, and less intrusions into citizen's lives, but their actions always betray them. Today's republican party is the most oppressive and invasive party in our country's history. Beware my fellow citizens. Unless we are ever vigilant against republican attempts to force their distorted and even demonic wills on the rest of us we will soon be living in a totalitarian country, controlled by Talibanish republicans like Robert Talton.