As Andy says, this speech excoriating the Texas legislature’s anti-gay-marriage amendment is a must-read.
The Tin Man
As Andy says, this speech excoriating the Texas legislature’s anti-gay-marriage amendment is a must-read.
I don’t find the actions of this state legislature particularly worrisome. The Texas State Legislature’s constitutional amendment is a symptom of a larger national ideological war. Albeit certainly a step backward in this larger national struggle, we should take heart that the issue is even a matter of debate in this area of the country. That it is at all says much about how well our efforts have paid-off in the last forty-some years. We’re no longer hidden. We’re discussed, and at considerable length.
Texan state reps have each, literally, spent tens hours thinking, discussing, debating, writing, and listening to issues all about homosexuals. Consider the newspaper and tv station editorials, current-event classroom discussions, never mind workplace lunch break talk, family dinner table debates, or bar-room bs. In the context and depth, this discussion would have never happened in a 1980’s Texas. But, it is happening now, and on a grand scale. This is no political-cycle fed fad or momentary cultural phenomenon. It’s the direct result of our nationalized civil-rights campaign.
Sure, i’d be just as pissed as State Rep. Thompson, or some liberal Austin gay-couple trying to build a life together. But, when a war gets hot battles surely happen. The enemy has, without doubt, taken advantage of a strategic weaknesses. But, few believed the Texas-theatre would be liberated anytime soon in the war. Really now, did we anticipate glorious victory after glorious victory?
Upon learning of this politically distant Texan defeat many of us might experience horror, disbelief, and even fear. But, for those of us not living behind the front lines in this war (e.g., NYC, LA, Boston, etc.) or not fortunate enough to have a gay-ghetto within several hours drive, this is no defeat. It’s part of the process. It’s how the struggle, eventually, will be won.
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“Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have come not to bring peace, but division. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes will be those of his own household.”
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Remember the bigger picture — and strategy.
After all, this ammendment was created, and passed, because they fear our evident and growing strength in the more secure regions of this war.
rob@egoz.org
Rob makes a really interesting point, a variation on the “no such thing as bad publicity” theory. I think there’s definitely validity to it.
But look at what Rep. Thompson really said in the midst of all that: here they have spent all this time looking at gay issues, as Rob points out — and as I work for an LGBT civil rights organization that thrills me — BUT, in all objective fairness, it has been to the detriment of people of all sexual orientations, including the religious right’s own base. What did this amendment do FOR anyone? Did it protect one marriage? Did it insure a child? Did it provide meaningful tax relief? All of the time, all the effort, all the TAX DOLLARS that went into preparing this legislation could have been spent on something with real positive repercussions. What a shameful waste.