New York is the latest state to tell gay men and women that they’re not as good as everyone else. By a vote of 38 to 24 — in other words, not even close — the New York State Senate gave gays a big thumbs down Wednesday. Read the New York Times story here. (The State Assembly passed the bill, by the way.)
Well done, New York. You’ve proven that you’re in league with evil: Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Jim Inhofe, secretly-gay Charlie Crist, all the other politicians/celebrities/assholes out there who seem to think it matters where a man puts his pee-pee.
Why write like a child? Because denying gays and lesbians the right to marry is childish. It’s fearful. It’s hateful. It’s stupid. If all you religious nuts out there are really so sure that “these people” (read: fags) are going to burn in Hell, why not pass gay marriage and let God sort it all out in the afterlife?
State Senator Rubén Díaz Sr. — a Democrat and a bigot — made the following statement in the New York Times piece:
Not only the evangelicals, not only the Jews, not only the Muslims, not only the Catholics, but also the people oppose it,” he said.
Polls suggest that voters in New York favor same-sex marriage, though the electorate is clearly split. A poll released Wednesday by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in Poughkeepsie showed that 51 percent of registered voters supported same-sex marriage while 42 percent opposed it.
Díaz added that his opposition reflected the broad belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman. Here’s some great stuff from an earlier Times piece about him.
“I love them. I love [my gay friends and family],” says Mr. Díaz, who grew up one of 17 children in Puerto Rico. “But I don’t believe in what they are doing. They are my brothers. They are my family.”
His voice rises again. “So how could I be a homophobe?”
For those fighting to expand gay rights, Mr. Díaz, a Pentecostal minister, represents the most outspoken and unpredictable of foes. He was forced to resign from the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board years ago for suggesting that the Gay Games would encourage homosexuality and spread H.I.V. In 2003, he sued the city to shut down a high school for gay and transgender students.
Remember: He’s a Pentecostal minister.
Of course there were some other nutjobs in Albany spewing their God-based hate. One guy said, “that the world belongs to the Almighty, and [the State Senate has] to reckon with his rules and his law.”
Ugh. The “it’s against God’s will argument.” It holds about as much sway as a cat fart: It stinks and ultimately it fades and means nothing. If God’s law really ruled — or if we wanted it to rule — then we’d all be straight, we’d all get married, we’d never get divorced and we’d just shit out babies starting at the age of 17. But Americans don’t live in La La Land; we live in the United States of America. In this country, the Declaration of Independence says we’re all equal, so how about we let the gays marry because it’s the right thing to do. And, just so we’re clear: The United States Constitution is the document that guides this country, not the Bible. The Bible says a guy lived inside a whale. (His name was Geppetto.)
Hey, remember the pre-Civil Rights south? You know, Jim Crow? When blacks and whites — by law — drank from different water fountains and didn’t go to the same schools? Yeah? And remember when President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in law into 1964 and then schools were forcibly desegregated and all that? Yeah? Lots of people didn’t want blacks and whites integrating! Christ, Lou Dobbs doesn’t even like Mexicans now.
Here’s what New York and 31 other states are telling the gays: Go sit at the back of the bus. Get out of my school. Get away from my drinking fountain. You’re not as good as we are. There’s no difference — no difference — between making Rosa Parks or Claudette Colvin give up a seat for the white lady and telling Jennie and Karen that they can’t get married because, you know, it’s uncomfortable for people to look at two women holding hands in public or whatever nonsense reason the foes have.
And really, what are you afraid of Fat America? That your nuclear family is sitting down to its Sunday meal, right after “America’s Funniest Home Videos” but before “60 Minutes,” when a group of gay-marrieds bursts into your home, ties you down with rainbow-colored rope and forces you to watch them gay-fuck each other? Is that what you’re afraid of?
Let’s be clear: That scenario will never happen. No one’s taking anything away from you by letting Susan and Linda or Diego and Frank get hitched. No one’s taking your Divine Covenant. But you’re taking from gays and lesbians easier access to health insurance, a sense of legitimacy and — most of all — equal rights. Marriage isn’t a holy, special, God-ordained insitution. It’s a decision between two people.
New York State Senate and everyone else: Grow up. Shut up. Let it happen. Here’s something to chew on from State Senator Diane Savino.
Score another point for the American Taliban.
Yes, I’m sure Michele Bachmann is wet with gay-hate glee.
Where did all of these stupid, close-minded people come from?
Diane Savino’s speech was great – thanks for posting it!