Posted on 05/30/2014 1:41:37 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
If conservatives don’t embrace the inevitable, they'll become irrelevant.
Since last year, the progress toward marriage equality has been nothing less than stunning. Nearly a year ago, the Supreme Court granted full federal recognition of married same-sex couples in declaring the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional. In rapid succession since then, federal judges in 13 states have overturned their state’s respective bans on same sex unions. The latest was last week in Pennsylvania, when Judge John E. Jones III, a G. W. Bush appointee, overturned the ban, writing, “We are a better people than what these laws represent.” Because Republican Gov. Tom Corbett has declined to appeal the judge’s decision, Pennsylvania is now the 19th state to legalize same-sex marriage.
Federal judges have ruled against the bans as diverse as Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia. Gay marriage isn’t just for blue states anymore.
One of the most eloquent statements against the bans was issued earlier this month by Arkansas federal judge Chris Piazza, who argued that state’s ban violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. “Procreation is not a prerequisite in Arkansas for a marriage license,” he said. “Opposite-sex couples may choose not to have children or they may be infertile, and certainly we are beyond trying to protect the gene pool. A marriage license is a civil document and is not, nor can it be, based upon any particular faith. Same-sex couples are a morally disliked minority and the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages is driven by animus rather than a rational basis. This violates the U.S. Constitution.”
These cases, and the others that will likely follow, can lead to just one thing: another historic case about gay marriage before the Supreme Court, one that could establish a constitutional right to marriage equality, something few legal experts thought would happen so soon after last year’s DOMA case.
Public opinion on this issue is marching forward as well. According to a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, 59 percent of Americans now support gay marriage. Only a third opposes it, nearly the reverse of the same poll 10 years ago. Forty percent of Republicans support it, and nearly 60 percent of Republicans between the ages of 18 and 29. Even 51 percent of white evangelicals under 35 support it, according to the Public Religion Research Institute.
And yet the Christian Right, or at least most of its self-proclaimed leaders, just won’t let it go. In mid-May, a group of them called the Conservative Action Project met outside Washington, D.C., to plot their next moves and devise their agenda to push back against the Republican leadership in Congress, whom they see as too soft on Obama and his agenda. Mainstream business groups like the Chamber of Commerce, which is keen to see a GOP takeover of the Senate after missed opportunities in 2010 and 2012, are siding with the leadership.
Although some of the attendees do not share the Conservative Action Project’s anti-gay agenda, most of them do. At the mid-May meeting, they reaffirmed their explicit opposition to same-sex marriage along with opposition to abortion and illegal immigration reform. Tony Perkins, head of the anti-gay Family Research Council, led a panel about restoring the “traditional family” as a Republican Party priority, as if almost universal opposition to gay rights has not been the party’s priority for several decades.
Polling consistently shows that independents, younger voters and women—all of whom used to routinely vote Republican in presidential contests—are now more often than not reliable Democrat voters. They are also pro-gay rights and same-sex marriage, especially younger voters. Unless Republicans begin to win some of them back with policies of social tolerance, they will simply no longer be in contention in presidential elections. Slavish devotion to right-wing social policies is the road to oblivion on the national stage.
So it’s time to stop letting the anti-gay tail wag the Republican dog. The Christian Right spokesmen’s pious pleas for tolerance for their anti-gay religious convictions will fall on deaf ears (and should) as long as they continue their own intolerance for those who practice different faiths or have different sexual orientations than they do.
Ending their tight grip on the party’s social agenda, and its 2016 platform, must be the top priority of those who wish to bring the Republican Party into the 21st century and make it appeal to more than just old white men.
oh please its not just about gay marriage. The gay mafia revealled their intolerance to the 1st amendment with their opposition to Chick fil a and Phil Robertson.
After gay marriage they’ll go after Christians then Christian churches until all are in group think.
If you drop “legalized gay marriage and” your statement is true. What remains of western culture is going deeper into the abyss beyond where any previous culture has gone.
You have 2 pairs of people, and they are both claiming to tie the knot.
a. The first is a male and a female about 28 years old.
b. The second is a male and a male about 28 years old.
As you look at couples a & b, do you see any differences, to you anticipate any differences, and do any of the differences suggest that the two pairings are absolutely different in their nature?
The institution was destroyed in the period 1969-1973, when the following three changes were made:
1) It became terminable at will by one party with no recourse to the counterparty.
2) Its principal legal feature - sexual exclusivity - was no longer enforced by the law.
3) Bastardy was made the legal equivalent of legitimacy, as regards the obligation of fathers.
This made "traditional marriage" illegal in all 50 states, and instituted "gay marriage for heterosexuals".
That gays want in in what has become a nonbinding contract whose only legal significance is the receiving of certain government benefits is understandable.
I’d love to see a backlash on all the leftist travesties. But I don’t. Where is it. I’m ready to join.
“And yet the Christian Right, or at least most of its self-proclaimed leaders, just won’t let it go”
How dare they. And who would have thought it. You know, when Christians overseas have elected to die rather than renounce their faith. Who would expect these people to be so resistant.
The only way this destroys the GOP is if they listen to this creepy looking agenda pimp.
I do not want to be relevant. I want to be right where God is. God is not where sin is, including and especially my own.
The GOP isn’t the only thing it is destroying. More importantly, it’s destroying America.
A handful of judges are engaged in a coup d’état.
When gay marriage is dictated throughout the United States, we will no longer be a free people.
We will then become the subjects of a judicial dictatorship.
And Jefferson warned us of this outcome in 1820.
I want to say upfront that this is not an endorsement of gay marriage, just something I noticed a few weeks back.
Patty Murray, who is about as dumb as a pile of rocks but who is also by virtue of seniority the Chair of the Senate Budget Committee, put up a proposal to rein in the marriage penalty.
The reason is that the a big wave of newly married gays are either experiencing or about to experience the marriage penalty, and the Dems are trying to get ahead of being held to account for it ...
Let’s see, 5000 years of human civilization versus 10 years of public delusion. My bet’s on biological reality. Ask the ancient Greeks and Romans how it all worked out for them.
Marriage vs. Mar-age?
Notice how these so-called polls always show a majority in favor of same-sex marriage(I refuse to use the term “gay marriage” because it isn’t) but every time the issue has ever appeared on a ballot the sodomites have lost? The polls are worthless.
One trick pony...
June 13, 2012
David Lampo, a longtime activist with the Virginia chapter of Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) and publications director at the libertarian Cato Institute, is author of a new book, A Fundamental Freedom: Why Republicans, Conservatives, and Libertarians Should Support Gay Rights, scheduled to be released on June 16 by Rowman & Littlefield.
Lampo spoke to the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner about the book at the 2012 Capital Pride festival on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, where he was promoting the book at the LCR information table.
He describes his book, A Fundamental Freedom, as “a primer about gay rights for Republicans [and] all right-of-center voters.”
GOP’s ‘bad reputation’
The Republican party, he explained, “has a bad reputation regarding gay rights and I thought it was time that somebody try to explain the concept and the philosophy behind [gay issues] from someone who shares their basic, fundamental political values.”
He felt it was important that “rather than liberals or leftists preaching at them about gay rights from the Left, I thought that somebody on the Right, specifically [someone] with a libertarian perspective, should address the issue with them.”
David Lampo (@DavidLampo) tweeted at 7:33am - 30 May 14:
Phil Robertson’s advice for the GOP politico.com/story/2014/05/… via @politico Exactly what’s wrong with the Republicans: inviting this idiot. (https://twitter.com/DavidLampo/status/472355036727496705)
https://mobile.twitter.com/DavidLampo
David Lampo (@DavidLampo) tweeted at 3:41pm - 20 May 14:
Judge Strikes Down Pennsylvania Ban on Gay Marriage nyti.ms/1h5pmCU The Big Mo gets bigger, can’t be stopped. (https://twitter.com/DavidLampo/status/468854121248739328)
David Lampo (@DavidLampo) tweeted at 9:09am - 8 May 14:
The Big Reason Republicans Should Hope Jeb Bush Runs nyti.ms/1jjuDLF Cohn is right. Rs must welcome immigrants or die. (https://twitter.com/DavidLampo/status/464406659972857856)
Then don’t have assets when you check out.
David Lampo (@DavidLampo) tweeted at 8:43am - 31 Mar 14:
Republicans Are Driving the Momentum for Gay Marriage - Molly Ball - The Atlantic theatlantic.com/politics/archi… Our work is paying off. (https://twitter.com/DavidLampo/status/450629366171463680)
David holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Penn State University and currently resides in Alexandria, Virginia. He is cofounder of the organization Virginia Republicans Moving Forward (VRMF), which aims to promote social tolerance within the Republican Party of Virginia.
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