A great post from my friend Kristy Hartsgrove can be found here.
To summarize- basically a Republican Senator in Iowa didn’t run for another term and states definitively the Gay Marriage debate was the reason. After years fighting it. From former Senator Jeff Angelo:
During my tenure in the Iowa Senate, I voted for an amendment similar to the one
contemplated tonight and was lead sponsor for a similar Constitutional amendment just
a few short years ago.
But I am here tonight to tell you that I have changed my position on this issue, and to
urge a “no” vote on House Joint Resolution 6 and ask that this assembly continue to
allow same-sex couples the ability to be joined in civil marriage.
I know that we all agree that the purpose of our Constitution is to protect the rights of
individuals. It does so by limiting the government’s power to control the lives and
properties of its citizens.
We all are joined together tonight but our love of liberty. Free citizens are allowed to
disagree and live their lives as they choose without fear of government reprisal as long
as life and property are not threatened.
Today the iowa State Senate passed an amendment to outlaw gay marriage within the state. This comes roughly a year after the passing of gay marriage rights. As with most gay marriage opposition it is an argument steeped in religious belief and fundamentalism.
I am myself a religious and faithful person and there is nothing sadder than seeing what is comparable to a Christian Crusade- this time with ideology as opposed to swords- dictating the lives of anyone different from themselves. Many Republicans who purported the bill would laugh this off- they may even point to the recent murder of Ugandan Gay rights activist David Kato as an example of how homosexuality would be handled here if they were truly backward. “We believe in tolerance,” is the defensive cry.
But not equality.
There at least has to be accountability on basic GOP standards. The mark of conservatism has, on its most basic level, been small government and personal freedom. Legislating personal lives is in direct opposition to this and the funding of such measures (like the support of Prop 8 in Los Angeles in part by Mormon churches) by religious entities is an attack on the Separation of Church and State that our country was founded on.
As much as Obama’s spending has been decried as Socialist by his opponents, measures like this leave the Right leaning very close to Fascism. Sometimes these words are passed around with little care, so for a quick definition:
Fascism: (noun) Fascists believe that a nation is an organic community that requires
strong leadership, singular collective identity, and the will and ability to commit
violence and wage war in order to keep the nation strong.[13] They claim that
culture is created by the collective national society and its state, that cultural
ideas are what give individuals identity, and thus they reject individualism.[13]
In a country of legal precedents it’s scary at any point to support the marginalization of any group. So T. MILLER let’em know:
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Nice insightful read. Never thought that it was this straightforward after all. I had spent a great deal of my time surfing the web for someone to explain this matter clearly to me and managed to do that. Great big thanks! Stay awesome.