Social conservative groups, having evidently already solved the persistent problems of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, healing the sick, comforting the afflicted, and other actually-spelled-out in the Bible Christian imperatives, now have plenty of free time on their hands. Which means, all those actual problems now out of they way, they can focus on the Number One Social Ill Gripping the Nation:
Steps to pass laws or secure November ballot initiatives are underway in at least 16 states, adoption, gay rights and conservative groups say. Some — such as Ohio, Georgia and Kentucky — approved constitutional amendments in 2004 banning gay marriage.
“Now that we’ve defined what marriage is, we need to take that further and say children deserve to be in that relationship,” says Greg Quinlan of Ohio’s Pro-Family Network, a conservative Christian group.
Right. We don’t allow gays to marry, and if we assert that kids should only be adopted by married couples, then obviously gays can’t adopt. And gays shouldn’t marry because, well, look, we don’t trust them to adopt our kids, do we?
Florida has banned all gays and lesbians from adopting since 1977, although they can be foster parents. State court challenges and a campaign by entertainer Rosie O’Donnell to overturn the law have failed. A pending bill would allow judges to grant exceptions.
Mississippi bans adoption by gay couples, but gay singles can adopt. Utah prohibits all unmarried couples from adoption.
Not, of course, that this is politically motivated or anything.
Republicans battered by questions over ethics and Iraq “might well” use the adoption issue to deflect attention and draw out conservatives in close Senate and governor races in states such as Missouri and Ohio, says Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, University of Southern California political scientist.
The aim is to replicate 2004, says Julie Brueggemann of the gay rights group PROMO: Personal Rights of Missourians. She says marriage initiatives mobilized conservative voters in 2004 and helped President Bush win in closely contested states such as Ohio. Republicans “see this as a get-out-the-vote tactic.”
Feh.
Well…
’04 was the election cycle of Anti-gay marriage initiatives to get the base out to vote for those…and Bush.
So, this time around it will by anti-gay marriage and adoptions so that the Republican majority is maintained in congress.
It would be so nice to see the GOP stand for things other than Hatred, Greed, Oppression, Fear, and bigotry for a change.
You bet “Feh.” What gets me is all those conservatives getting all whipped into a lather probably have gay relatives and friends, they just don’t know it. And those relatives will never have the courage to “come out” to those people, no doubt out of fear of rejection or retribution.
My hope is that someday, love will conquer even the hardest of hearts. Someday, everyone will have to realize that someone they know and love is gay – even the most deeply entrenched hardliner.
I wish people like Gingrich and Cheney (who have gay family members) would break their silence on this issue. I can’t imagine it’s easy for them (as little as I care for either of them) to stand by and listen to the rabid Right gabble on about the evuls of gay marriage and gay adoption and gay peopl in general without speaking out. I wonder how they live with themselves sometimes (well, I wonder that abouut them for a lot of reasons).
It would be so nice to see the GOP stand for things other than Hatred, Greed, Oppression, Fear, and bigotry for a change.
I’d settle for something other than just Fear.
What gets me is all those conservatives getting all whipped into a lather probably have gay relatives and friends, they just don’t know it. And those relatives will never have the courage to “come out” to those people, no doubt out of fear of rejection or retribution.
Or, alternately, they do know, but consider them “exceptions” (“Some of my best friends are …”).
It ain’t going to work this time. The hotest topics within the Evangelical community are AIDS — that is working towards treating the ill and not bashing them — and stopping global warming. In both cases Rick Warren is behind the charge. If the GOP assumes they still have Evangelicals in their hip pocket they will be sadly mistaken. This is not to say that Evangelicals are in love with liberalism. The bitter acrimony and the never-ending conspiracy theories turns them off. Neither the left or the right really inspires. In the end, Evangelicals may stay home in 2006 as they did ten years ago.