[Ohio's] Petro Opposes Gay-Marriage Ban Amendment [Another Reason to Support Blackwell for Gov]

http://www.cleveland.com/newslogs/plaindealer/ ^ | September 27, 2004

[Diago]

Petro Opposes Gay-Marriage Ban Amendment

Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro becomes the first Republican state official to formally oppose Issue 1, saying he fears that the anti-gay marriage amendment will harm Ohio’s economy.

As Ohio’s chief attorney, Petro shares the opinion that the amendment would prevent Cleveland Heights and public colleges from continuing to offer domestic-partner benefits.

Ohio Auditor Betty Montgomery, meanwhile, supports the issue, while Gov. Bob Taft is undecided.

[Diago]

It is time for Ohio to stop supporting RINO's. I hope conservatives will unite behind Blackwell as Taft's replacement.

[Diago]

http://www.gaypeopleschronicle.com/stories/01aug10.htm

Senate panel approves hate crime bill; DeWine’s ‘yea’ riles anti-gays

by Anthony Glassman

Washington, D.C. - Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, along with Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., broke ranks with their party July 26, voting in the Senate Judiciary Committee to pass a bill to add sexual orientation to federal hate crime law.

The committee approved the measure 11-7 on an otherwise party-line vote.

The bill is identical to last year’s Kennedy-Smith amendment, which was passed as part of a defense appropriations bill, then stripped off in conference committee. Both DeWine and Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, voted for the amendment last year as well.

"You’re either in favor of it, or you’re not," said Mike Dawson, DeWine’s communications director.

DeWine and Voinovich, however, refused to cosponsor this year’s legislation, as they had not cosponsored last year’s bill. Neither Ohio senator cosponsored the gay and lesbian Employment Non-Discrimination Act last year, nor the Ryan White AIDS funding bill, although both voluntarily adopted a written non-discrimination policy for their offices that includes sexual orientation.

ENDA, the employment bill, was reintroduced last week. Neither DeWine nor Voinovich is a cosponsor.

The hate crime bill now before the full Senate would add sexual orientation, gender and handicapped status to existing federal hate crime law. It would also provide money to state and local jurisdictions to fight hate crimes, and make it easier for federal law enforcement authorities to intervene in hate crime cases not necessarily in federal jurisdiction.

Voinovich’s spokesman Scott Milburn said that if the legislation remains as it was last year, Voinovich will vote for it again.

DeWine’s vote in committee has garnered him the wrath of Ohio’s religious right, who held a press conference at the Statehouse. The executive director of the Christian Coalition of Ohio, Stephen Hartkop, said that DeWine is turning his back on the Christian conservatives who voted him into office. Gregory Quinlan of the Pro-Family Network in Dayton, who says he is an "ex-gay," added that DeWine was betraying families.

Phil Sheldon, a spokesman for the Traditional Values Coalition, said that DeWine has a "history of supporting the radical homosexual agenda," according to the Dayton Daily News.

For the 106th Congress in 1999-2000, DeWine scored two out of seven on the gay and lesbian Human Rights Campaign’s Senate scorecard, earning him a 29% rating, compared to Voinovich’s 43%.

Ohio’s representatives also presented a mixed bag, according to the HRC scorecard. Dennis Kucinich, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Sherrod Brown and Thomas Sawyer, all Democrats, all garnered 100% ratings from HRC, with six others garnering scores of 50% or above. Among those six are two Republicans, Rep. Deborah Pryce with a 67% rating and Ralph Regula with a 50% rating.

[DirtyHarryY2K]

The hate crime bill now before the full Senate would add sexual orientation, gender and handicapped status to existing federal hate crime law. It would also provide money to state and local jurisdictions to fight hate crimes, and make it easier for federal law enforcement authorities to intervene in hate crime cases not necessarily in federal jurisdiction.

In other words accept perversion or Go to jail!

Not merely the validity of experience but the very existence of external reality were tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. George Orwell – 1984 On the Thought Police

[Diago]

http://www.zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/news/stories/20040709/localnews/807285.html

Blackwell urges Senate to pass gay-marriage ban

By GREG WRIGHT
Gannett News Service

---

WASHINGTON -- Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell urged fellow Republicans in the U.S. Senate Thursday to pass a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, calling homosexuality "a lifestyle choice."

Blackwell told about two dozen senators that gay groups cannot argue for the same rights as minority groups.

"There is a difference between a lifestyle choice and an immutable characteristic like race or ethnicity," said Blackwell, one of the top elected black Republicans in the nation.

Bishop Keith Butler of the Word of Faith International Christian Center in Michigan joined Blackwell at the hour-long meeting in the U.S. Capitol. Butler is part of a coalition of black ministers disturbed that gays are linking gay marriage to the civil rights movement that ended legal discrimination against blacks.

Gays in Ohio said Blackwell's argument that homosexuality is a choice is misguided.

"I feel it is innate -- it is genetic," said Leo Radel, one of the founders of Dignity, a gay rights group in Columbus. "I think the science is heading in that direction."

Meanwhile Terry Payne, chairman of the Stonewall Cincinnati gay rights group, said a nationwide movement to give homosexuals marriage and other rights is growing despite indifference in Ohio. "He needs to be more conscious and aware," Payne said of Blackwell.

In February, Ohio enacted a law that said only a man and a woman can marry. Citizens groups in Ohio are circulating petitions to put a question on the November ballot on whether to include a gay marriage ban in the state constitution.

The constitutional ban would prevent liberal judges from making gay marriage legal, Blackwell said. A Massachusetts court recently ruled homosexual couples should have the same rights as heterosexuals.

Senate Republicans who support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning gay marriage say it has little chance of getting the 67 votes it needs to move forward when it comes up for a vote next week.

Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, went to the Blackwell meeting but fellow Republican Sen. George Voinovich could not because he was attending a funeral in Ohio for John Stozich, the former director of the Ohio Department of Industrial Relations.

DeWine left the meeting without talking to reporters, referring questions to his staff.

Both DeWine and Voinovich believe marriage should be between a man and a woman, their spokespeople said.

DeWine is undecided on whether he would vote to amend the Constitution to say that, spokeswoman Amanda Flaig said.

Voinovich has said it would be difficult to pass a gay marriage ban amendment because Congress has approved just four constitutional changes in 50 years.

Instead, Voinovich said Congress should continue to make sure the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act is upheld. That law does not require a state to recognize a gay marriage legal in another state.

If judges overrule state laws on gay marriage then a constitutional amendment must be passed, Voinovich said.

[griswold3]

Ohioian here. I have emailed Blackwell concerning voter responsibility regularly. No response yet. However, I really do like this guy. Saw him on one of Tavis Smiley's forums and he was great. Stood up for all citizens against the racists on that particular panel.

[Ann Archy]

Ken Blackwell is terrific!!

[RockinRight]

Ohio has got to be one of the worst states in the nation for RINO's.

Ken Blackwell for Governor!

[B Knotts]

saying he fears that the anti-gay marriage amendment will harm Ohio's economy

BWAHAHAHAHAHA

Sorry, but...what an idiot. I mean that in the most charitable way possible.

That has to be about the dumbest reason to oppose a traditional marriage amendment I've ever heard.

[little jeremiah]

Homosexual Agenda Ping - More idiocy, this time from Ohio. Anyone who entertains the concern that a "ban" on "gay marriage" would be baaad for the economy is someone who has their priorities WRONG.

I mean, there are many evils that are good for the economy. What is the economy, God?

Let me and Scripter know if anyone wants on/off this pinglist.

[conservative_2001]

Ken Blackwell is the only true conservative in the race. After 16 years of George Voinovich and Boob Taft, I'm anxious to get an actual conservative as my Governor. Montgomery is horrible, and Petro isn't quite trustworthy himself.

[usadave]

Gays in Ohio said Blackwell's argument that homosexuality is a choice is misguided. "I feel it is innate -- it is genetic," said Leo Radel, one of the founders of Dignity, a gay rights group in Columbus. "I think the science is heading in that direction."

I wonder how Blackwell would explain bi-sexuality. If a person is supposedly born a homosexual, why doesn't that person remain strictly a homosexual throughout all of their sexual encounters during their entire lifetime?

[usadave]

In my post #12, I meant to say Radel, and not Blackwell.

[Diago]

from the article:

"Blackwell's argument that homosexuality is a choice..."

Blackwell does not say you are born that way. He says it is a choice.

[TOUGH STOUGH]

Come on lj, it's the economy stupid! /sarcasm/

[JesseHousman]

Blackwell is indeed THE MAN!!!!!

[swampfox98]

I will certainly be voting for Blackwell.

[sothurn]

Whether one has sex with a man or a woman is a choice, but homosexuality is a natural, indelible orientation. Gay people are inately attracted to people of the same sex. Heterosexuals are attracted to people of opposite sex. Bisexuals are attracted to people of both sexes. Our culture scorns homosexuality so of course gay people will grow up feigning heterosexual sex in order to "fit in." "Ex gays" are homosexuals or bisexuals who are supressing their true feelings for the same gender in order to "fit in." People often go against nature in order to fit in.

If you believe homosexuality is a "choice" than you must believe that having sex with a man is the same thing as having sex with a woman. So, that would mean you are bisexual. True heterosexuals don't believe they have chosen to be heterosexual any more than homosexuals chose to be homosexual.

All of this is pretty much common sense - I don't understand the ignorance being expressed in most of these posts.

Of course there is no natural attraction for people of one race for another. So it is definitely a choice for a white person to have sex with a black person, or vice versa. For this reason I believe that an amendment outlawing miscegination or racial mixing would be much more reasonable and God-fearing. Similarly, I think that sex with short people should be outlawed. That's simply disgusting.

[sothurn]

Whether one has sex with a man or a woman is a choice, but homosexuality is a natural, indelible orientation. Gay people are inately attracted to people of the same sex. Heterosexuals are attracted to people of opposite sex. Bisexuals are attracted to people of both sexes. Our culture scorns homosexuality so of course gay people will grow up feigning heterosexual sex in order to "fit in." "Ex gays" are homosexuals or bisexuals who are supressing their true feelings for the same gender in order to "fit in." People often go against nature in order to fit in.

If you believe homosexuality is a "choice" than you must believe that having sex with a man is the same thing as having sex with a woman. So, that would mean you are bisexual. True heterosexuals don't believe they have chosen to be heterosexual any more than homosexuals chose to be homosexual.

All of this is pretty much common sense - I don't understand the ignorance being expressed in most of these posts.

Of course there is no natural attraction for people of one race for another. So it is definitely a choice for a white person to have sex with a black person, or vice versa. For this reason I believe that an amendment outlawing miscegination or racial mixing would be much more reasonable and God-fearing. Similarly, I think that sex with short people should be outlawed. That's simply disgusting.