Palin's virulent anti-gay crusade

[Onlooker]

Not only does Alaska already have a Constitutinal amendment banning gay marriage, Palin evidently wanted another amendment to ban equal benefits to same-sex partners of state employees. Does any other state have such an amendment?

http://alaskalegislature.com/stories/122106/leg_20061221021.shtml

Gov. Sarah Palin announced Wednesday that the state would reluctantly comply with an Alaska Supreme Court order to provide same-sex partners of state employees with benefits equal to those of their married co-workers.

At the same time, Palin said she would also move forward with a statewide advisory vote intended to help pass a constitutional amendment barring both state and local governments, such as Anchorage and Juneau, from providing same-sex benefits.

...

"We believe we have no more judicial options to pursue," she said.
...
However, Palin also said Wednesday she would sign a measure passed by the Legislature in its November special session. That measure would set an April 3 statewide advisory vote on the question.

Palin said she hopes the vote would persuade the Legislature to place on the ballot a constitutional amendment barring state and local governments from providing partner benefits to gay employees.

"If it's an overwhelming vote, it really bolsters the confidence to go ahead" and try to change the Constitution, she said.

[terrya]

1. There are some people out there who are deluded that she's somewhat gay friendly.

This needs to be aired.

Of course, given her extremist viewpoint, this shouldn't surprise anyone.

[AldebTX]

3. Yeah I had a Log Cabin Friend

I had a Log Cabin friend tell me she vetoed anti-gay legislation. When I tried to explain the truth and point him to some of her quotes he said...my "world" view was wrong.

They see what they want to see.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Republicans are masters at deluding sheeple into voting against their best interests.

Republicans are masters at deluding sheeple into voting against their best interests.

Lakoff has a great essay that puts it directly: "What Democrats have shied away from is a frontal attack on radical conservatism itself as an un-American and harmful ideology."

on edit: the link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lakoff/the-palin-choice-and-the_b_123012.html

[Blue_In_AK]

2. Our Supreme Court ruled that

same-sex partners of state employees should have equal rights to benefits since they are denied the right to marry and thus would be treated differently than married employees. There was a lot of talk about trying to pass a law to get around the ruling, but there hasn't been much interest by the majority of the legislature in doing so, especially since they're only talking about maybe 16 to 20 gay couples employed by the State. This matter has kind of died because the anti-gays in the legislature are outnumbered by the "who gives a care" members, and Sarah simply let it ride because she knew it was a lost cause.

Everybody knows that Sarah is very far-right in her social views, but there's no way she could get a lot of her more reactionary ideas past the legislature. Alaskans are too unruly for all that stuff. I think I heard somewhere recently that overall we have one of the least church-attending populations in the country. Plus, our state constitution has a very strong privacy clause, so a lot of Sarah's more Draconian ideas would have a hard time passing constitutional muster. That's why we still have access to abortions and legal pot.

I think part of Sarah's success here is that she has not tried to impose a lot of religious stuff on us. Her main focus all along has been on development of Alaska's resources, most especially a natural gas pipeline.

[Onlooker]

5. Well at least parts of the Alaska government are sane

But, her advocacy for an amendment that denies equal benefits is something that needs far more attention, I think.

[Blue_In_AK]

6. Her advocacy was half-hearted, at best.

More pressure on this issue came from some of the troglodytes in the legislature. But thank you for noticing that many of us up here, including even some politicians, are sane. :)