Wait! Marriage Is Now A Civil Right.

Yesterday I was doing some background work into the speeches made by Chris Christie and Anne Romney at the Republican Convention. I had posted a comment on Facebook which sparked a conversation and I wanted to add some fact or context to my opinion. I ran across a highlighted article on Vice.com about the Republican (Rep.) Official Platform, which was issued on Tuesday, August 28th, 2012. One of the first highlighted outtakes by from the platform document was on the subject of Same-Sex-Marriage, it read:

 

“"We condemn the hate campaigns, threats of violence, and vandalism by proponents of same-sex marriage against advocates of traditional marriage and call for a federal investigation into attempts to deny religious believers their civil rights." 

 

My first reaction to reading this statement was my jaw dropped because this statement officially invalidates the Republican argument against same-sex-marriage. Beside the religious reason that marriage is for procreation, their legal card was marriage is not a civil right. We heard it time and time again during the campaigning of Prop. 8 and during the Prop. 8 hearings and trial. This official statement voids the argument that same-sex marriage is not a civil right. For the past couple of years, all I’ve heard is how marriage is not a right due to all citizens and how it’s heterosexual couples have the divine right to be married. First of all, I am not talking about marriage in a church or by a religious woman or man of the cloth. I am talking about the basic option of going down to city hall and requesting a license and being married by a judge or state employee. Simple ceremony that affords two U.S. citizens the basic rights of entering into marriage contract. 

 

When I finished reading the statement, the first half felt like a huge stake in my gut. For 4 1/2 years, since our daughters birth, Clem and I have gone to bed in fear of tomorrow and what we would awake to in the headlines, that would jeopardize our family or the LGBT community. This fear is nothing new. We, along with the whole LGBT community have lived with these fears for many years. A fear that one piece of news that is two close to home. Headlines such as these:

 

  • Bryan Fischer Calls For 'Underground Railroad' Kidnapping To Save Gay Parents' Children
  • School Board Bans Kid's Book for Mention of Gay Families
  • Why 'It's OK To Discriminate' Against Gays, According To Right Wing Pundits
  • Anti-Gay Disney Letter Claiming Equal Benefits 'Increase The Spread Of AIDS'
  • German Lawmaker Thinks Gays Almost As Big A Threat As Euro Crisis
  • Romney VP pick Paul Ryan backed bans on gay marriage, adoption
  • FRC Pampletes titled The Slippery Slope of Same-Sex Marriage
  • Perkins claimed that "homosexual men are more likely to abuse children than straight men"; experts disagree

 

Those are just a few headlines I’ve seen in the last few weeks. Yes, we do wake up to some headlines so scary, it’s almost to real. Today I figured I would just google anti-gay attack and yes the top 10 stories were about 3 news stories about LGBT members who faked their attacks to get their 15 minutes. That sickens me but there are still hundreds of stories out there that are true. 

 

This blog post initially started out as a Facebook post. A heated post because my second reaction to the statement was more driven by anger. For years the LGBT community has endured discrimination, violence, vandalism and verbal assaults. So now that the LGBT community is finally standing up and finding more and more allies in the heterosexual community, Republicans have decided to play the victim. Yes, what happened at the Family Research Council was a travesty and the LGBT community has denounced the actions of one individual. But to be attacked like this with such a ridiculous political play is a dishonor for all LGBT citizens and their struggles.

 

Last time i checked, straight people don't get their cars and houses spray painted with offensive names like BREEDERS or their personal property vandalized or destroyed because they're gay, homosexuals don't verbally assault heterosexuals walking down the street for holding hands, the LGBT community is not advocating on radio and TV for children of hetero-couples be kidnapped into an under-ground railroad to save them from heterosexual-marriage, Straight people in foreign countries aren't being beheaded, arrested or physically attacked for being straight, Straight people aren't being attacked or murdered while walking home because their straight. The LGBT community doesn't send out mailers, hand out pamphlets or send emails saying that straight people are pedophiles, rapists, mentally unstable and unfit to be parents! okay that last item has been studied and some of it has been proven by scholars to be fact but the LGBT community doesn’t exploit it in a platform. If you want to read more about this........

 

Here is the Vice.com article

 

http://www.vice.com/read/the-silliest-most-terrifying-things-in-the-republica...

 

You can view the complete platform here

 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/104221532/2012-Gop-Platform

 

BRIAN H-KAnti-Gay, Descrimination, Opinion, PoliticalComment