Matt Baume is a San Francisco, California, based freelance writer, journalist, and photographer freelance writer covering LGBT news, science, and media for publications like The Bay Area Reporter, SFist, Queerty, NBC, and The SF Appeal. As founder of Stop8.org, Matt is an LGBTQ activist whose principal focus is currently ending California's Prop 8 and assisting in ensuring same-sex marriage rights and equality nationally.
By Matt Baume (San Francisco, California) JAN 3 | Make no mistake: the Republican party is by no means safe for gays. This week RNC Chair Michael Steele laid it out as bluntly as he could, telling the National Organization for Marriage that he's behind them 100%.
That's lousy news for Republicans who are trying to build bridges to the gay community. And it undermine's the GOP's credibility with swing voters, particularly in light of the Southern Poverty Law Center's inclusion of NOM on a list of anti-gay propaganda groups. The SPLC didn't formally name NOM as a hate group, but it doesn't do them any favors to be associated with official hate groups like the American Family Association and Family Resource Council, which spread falsehoods about gays.
In a conversation with NOM, Steele threatened to push a federal constitutional ban on gay marriage. The chances of that actually succeeding are slim to none, even with the Republican landslide this election. Something similar was floated in 2006 and it was a big flop.
And while the Republican party was busy sliding back into discrimination, Barack Obama and Joe Biden each had curiously supportive-ish things to say about gay marriage. Absurdly, politicians still can't come right out and say that they support equality, but the President and Vice President talked about their evolving understanding of gay couples and the inevitability of civil rights.
Everyone knows it's just a matter of time. But this waiting is killing us.
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1 comments:
If it is just a matter of time, and nothing else, there is no reason to not just do it now. "Just a matter of time" is not really 'it' though, as it is really a matter of building up the numbers till the time is reached that the numbers are reached. Unfortunately, anything can make the number climb slow down and even reverse itself; all it takes is concerted publicity of the wrong kind, and that is what they are trying to use to derail the 'time'.
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