Today on "Friday Outrage", a nice little slice of American bigotry in the form of the State Republican Party of Texas releasing their party platform. It's not good. Their obsession with "protecting marriage" is still in full swing, transsexuals are the new bogeyman of choice, and most alarmingly, they want to make marrying two gay people (or any couple which includes a transsexual) a felony.
Three points:
a) Logically - and I’ll acknowledge up front the pointless of saying that - I think it’s a mistake to lump in transgender people along with homosexuals. I mean, the whole thing is a mistake from my perspective, but even from the GOP viewpoint, it seems unwise. Unless I’m missing something, of course. I’m willing to be corrected, but as far as I’m aware, whilst there exists several (well, what, two?) passages in the Bible that suggest homosexuality will make God irate, there’s nothing in there that says an operation to invert the penis will get you sent to the Infernal Pit for the rest of time. In other words, by suggesting transsexuals are just as problematic as teh gays, Texan Republicans make it even more obvious than it already was (which, y’know, was fucking extremely) that this is nothing to do with the Divine Rule of God, and entirely a result of sufficient white men getting grossed out by shit they don’t understand.
b) Ordinarily, I’d be saying that if the Democrats have any sense at all, they’ll start demanding the national GOP stands behind or refutes the Texan platform. “Lone Star State Republicans think presiding over a lesbian marriage should get you thrown in jail, how does that sit with you guys?” However, given that gay marriage only has narrow support nationally, may not have much support in the places Democrats are unlikely to win/hold on to, and the general inability of Democrats to do anything but pretend they want a watered-down version of what *Republicans* want, I’m not particularly hopeful. It would be unfair to say the Obama administration has done nothing for its gay constituents, but the game-plan always seems to be about nibbling around the edges and hoping the Republicans don’t notice.
c) Presiding over a lesbian marriage should get you thrown in jail. What do you even say to that? Around what pillar of that position do you wrap your argument? You might as well be talking to someone who says “Eating kumquats should carry the death penalty.” It’s too fucked-up bat-shit crazy to process. I’ve talked many times before about my problem with these people being less that they think homosexuality is a sin and more about their constant, lunatic screaming that homosexuality is such a major sin that every single one of the problems America has, from jaywalking to mine-disasters, can ultimately be traced back to one dude wanting to suck another dude’s cock. This is the first time I’ve seen them suggest presiding over a homosexual marriage should be a crime, though. You know that scene in 80% of gangster films where the mob boss tells a cop that he’s going after the cop’s friend ands family. That’s what GOP - TX are doing. Right now. They’re saying “We can’t legally stop you being in love, but if you try to do shit about it, your friends are getting locked up for a year at least.”
Like I say. Someone needs to hammer this home at the federal level. I’m clearly of the opinion that Republicans have crossed a whole host of lines a whole bunch of times, but I’d think attempting to criminalise clergymen for recognising love of a kind the GOP doesn’t like should be pretty clearly out of order for just about anyone with any sense/a shred of humanity.
No comments:
Post a Comment