What's wrong with the Right?

By Joe Chard
RAW STORY COLUMNIST

San Francisco — You deserve to be ostracized. You don't deserve the same rights as us. You are less than us. We will not tolerate you, you are not welcome. You are strange, evil, and we will not accept you among us; we do not want you here.

These are the strong messages that Ohio sent to homosexuals last week when Governor Bob Taft signed legislation making Ohio the 38th state to legalize marriage discrimination against couples of the same sex. It is troubling that 37 other states have passed similar measures but particularly disturbing is that it doesn't stop at preventing couples from getting married. In addition, the legislation denies benefits to unmarried partners of state employees, effectively punishing people for their private decisionson on top of discriminating against them by denying couples the right to be married. The language of the law is downright insulting, stating that gay marriage is 'against the strong public policy of the state.' They might as well have added the clause, 'We really, really don't like gay people. Please just don't come here.' Yaaaaaaay hatred! It is appalling that there are people proud of this.

A less publicized glimmer of hope came out of Cincinnati as Mayor Charlie Luken announced an initiative which, if passed, would prohibit discrimination against individuals based on their sexual orientation. But wait, doesn't that mean that discrimination against homosexuals is legal now? Yes! It does! In a bout of fanaticism, extreme even for conservative Cincinnati, voters approved Article XII to the city's charter in 1997. This law prevents homosexuals from suing landlords or employers that discriminate against them based on their sexual orientation--in other words, voters legalized discrimination. In these hard financial times, Article XII has cost the city an estimated $49 million dollars, according to the mayor, in revenues from conventions that did not want to come to a city that discriminates, though the city just spent $160 million on convention center expansions, hoping to attract more large events. Several companies, including high-tech firms such as Missing Lynx Systems, have changed plans to relocate to the city because of the Article, and many area companies, including Procter & Gambel, and universities in the Cincinnati area have complained publicly about it, and donated large sums towards efforts to defeat it. I am shocked at the lengths people will go through to encourage and even legalize homophobia, despite the obvious high financial costs. I am embarassed that I am a Cincinnati, Ohio native.

But better news has come from regions of our country where people actually care about freedom for everyone. The Massachusetts legislature rejected a proposal that would have run contrary to the state's own Supreme Court Ruling and would have declared a ban on gay marriages. In San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome, deemed 'conservative' by his opponent in December's run-off election, wrote a letter asking the city auditor to recognize marriages between same-sex couples as soon as possible. Since then, over 1,000 couples have been able to get married at San Francisco city hall. After seeing the joy on the faces of a couple after tying the knot, after seeing thousands of people willing to stand in the rain for hours to go through this ceremony, how can anyone sensibly want to deny marriage to people? What is the threat? "By golly Betsy, those people look... HAPPY! This simply will not stand, somebody call George Bush!"

The President responded to events with a statement saying he was 'deeply disturbed.' Unfortunately, it was the non-divisive, non-discrimatory, ruling in Massachussets that disturbed the President so, rather than the hateful, polarizing law passed in Ohio. The other 37 laws that declare homosexual couples to be unworthy of the same status as male-female couples don't disturb him either. He claims 'tolerance' but really, what do his administration and these conservative lunatics have against gay people?

Right wing extremists and religious fundamentalists have vowed to turn same-sex marriage into an election year issue, and people are getting fired up about it. In the wake of Brittney Spears 48-hour mockery of the instutition, these so-called 'pro-family' advocates look like fools claiming that the 'sacred institution' must be 'defended' from gay couples. Such groups attempt to paint the issue as that of protecting marriage, but considering that they view gay couples as a threat, instead of widespread divorce, infidelity and the antics of teenie-boppers, it is clear that the issue stems from a hatred, fear and desire to discriminate against homosexuals.

These hate-mongerers have gone so far as to threaten using the Constitution of the United States, the very document that PROTECTS the freedoms of all Americans, to discriminate against individuals based on their sexual orientation. The President has announced that he would back such an ammendment. If the war on terror is aimed at protecting freedom, we need to train the guns and bunkerbusting bombs on the fundamentalists in America first. If we are not careful we will have a constitution that divides us and promotes hatred and discrimination against a certain group for the first time since the end of the Civil War. It is shameful that the President and his right-wing masters do not realize the error of their ways and the hypocrisy of claiming to fight for freedom while denying it to our fellow citizens.

Joe Chard is a freelance writer based in San Francisco, and a weekly contributor to Raw Story. An archive of his column can be found here. When not ranting against the right, Joe works in non-profit technological development.