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Thursday 6 November 2008

A victory for hate

Well, the Catholics and others at the nuttier, more hate-filled, more evil end of the religious spectrum in the USA have a lot to crow about now that they’ve pissed on the parades of so many people by pushing for Proposition 8.

Proposition 8 was the move to change the State Constitution in California to restrict marriage to opposite-sex couples. It passed.

The sad story of one couple is told in the International Herald Tribune. They planned ahead for a wedding next spring, confident that the vote would fail. Then they learned it was looking very iffy, and dashed off to tie the knot, only to be told it had passed, with immediate effect.

As the paper puts it, “There was nowhere to turn except each other’s arms.”

It continues, “Combined with defeats on ballot measures in three other states, the outcome raised sobering questions for gay activists after an election full of triumphs for other liberal causes,” says the report. “Marriage bans prevailed in Arizona and Florida, while Arkansas voters approved a measure aimed at gays and lesbians that bans unmarried couples from serving as adoptive or foster parents.”

It goes on to say, “Religious groups, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Roman Catholic Church, played pivotal roles in pushing for the ban.”

Well, the religiofascists of the right had little to boast about when the presidential election result was finally announced. Now they can crow about this.

Let’s hope they feel really great about helping to cause so much misery to so many people by helping to bring about a situation that actually does them no tangible good, but satisfies their quota of hate for a while. But, then, that’s rabid right-wing Christians and Catholic mental cases for you.

At least it looks as if those who have already tied the knot can be assured that their knots will remain tied.

3 comments:

Fred Preuss said...

So Black churches and Hispanic Protestants had nothing to do with it?
Are you unaware of the fact that a significantly higher than normal Black turnout for Obama was one of the things that helped sink marriage for gays in CA?
Or are you just trying to avoid mentioning a group you'd prefer to think of as your natural allies?

Andy Armitage said...

Fred has a point. It's the Catholics and the right-wing Christians (those of the evangelical persuasion, usually) who tend to grab the headlines and who, we are led to believe, bankrolled this Prop 8 campaign (which was the main point of my post), but, yes, there are many Christians who sit at all points on the political spectrum who are homophobic, and I hold no truck for them, either, when it comes to their views on sexuality. Loving your neighbour means you don't ask him what he does with his dick.

Anonymous said...

I'm hoping this rallies the GLBT community across the country to stand up, take it to the streets and demand change. I'm so sick and tired of being on the receiving end of discrimination and lies. There are any number of people or groups that could be blamed for this "victory," and I'm angry at all of them.