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Wayne Besen
PO Box 25491
Brooklyn, NY 11202
Leave it to Barack Obama to do something noble the day after I write a snarky column about his awful choice of preachers.
The AP reports today that the Obama administration will endorse a U.N. declaration calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality that then-President George W. Bush had refused to sign, The Associated Press has learned.
U.S. officials said Tuesday they had notified the declaration's French sponsors that the administration wants to be added as a supporter. The Bush administration was criticized in December when it was the only western government that refused to sign on.
This is truly wonderful news and we thank our new president - who is light years ahead of that Neanderthal Bush. Obama is setting a terrific example throughout the world.
Bush was a Neanderthal. The only reason his so-called Administration didn't support the UN resolution was because his political handlers actually understood the religious right better than they understand themselves. Publicly, those goons claim to not hate gays, but people like Karl Rove knew the devious truth. It's all about hate.
The mind of the so-called "Christian" right is no different than that of extremists who behead and blow up their opponents in lands far away. Rove and his team accommodated that hate in order to get those votes. Sadly, this isn't anything new in politics. Cultural issues tend to appeal to the lowest common denominator: people who have accomplished nothing in life; abject failures who can only brag about the fact that they're "white" or "straight."
posted by Chris L., at
3/18/2009 4:10 PM
Agreed. And in the last 20 years, for example, we have made more than steps. We have run a four-minute mile. Just ten years ago, the idea that two gay men could have their marriage legally recognized would have been laughable. Just as laughable as was considered the notion that black people were more than 3/5 human (for apportionment purposes) in the 1800s. And now we have a black man as President. And so far, he's doing damn good.
posted by Chris L., at
3/18/2009 5:23 PM
This is indeed a step in the right direction, and I too hope we get a bigger slice, Wayne...but its not going to be marriage equality, not with 30 states now banning it, more than half the country. No amount of federal legislation could compel any of them to overturn their bans either. If it ever reached the SCOTUS, as it now stands, the bans would remain in effect.
posted by Anonymous, at
3/19/2009 9:07 AM
Robert~ while it will progress slowly, it will happen. Even in my own "purple" state ~MN, this topic has been hot news among lawmakers for the last couple of days. The irony is that one MN state senator is openly gay AND against marriage equality. Bans will always continue to be challenged. The progress seen so far wouldn't even exist if no one challenged the status. Just think if everyone accepted defeat ~ forget the slices, there wouldn't even be crumbs...
posted by TrevorHere, at
3/19/2009 9:45 AM
Trevor, I take your point but why oh why does it take so long in this country that is arguably supposed to be the most advanced to get this kind of legislation passed and yet five countries, i.e. Holland, Belgium, Spain, Norway and Sweden that have state religion manage to do what we can't? Even the UK that has all the rights of marriage at the national level via civil partnerships is ahead of us. I just don't understand it and there is absolutely no excuse why we can't do the same. Why are European and Canadian politicians far more progressive than our own and willing to stick their necks out but ours won't? It stinks.
posted by Anonymous, at
3/19/2009 12:16 PM
We are all prone to expecting too much, too fast. Although we most certainly deserve all of it NOW, the political process doesn't work that way. It is not only gays who are subject to the crawling nature of change, it is everyone in the country. Anyone who wants to get anything done goes through the same process. Even so, our progress is clear. The legislatures of Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire and New Jersey are actively debating same-sex marriage. Such a thing was not even on the radar a few years ago.
posted by Chris L., at
3/19/2009 12:23 PM
