Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyDecember 9th, 2009
The vote on marriage equality in the New Jersey Senate was scheduled for tomorrow. It has been delayed. (NJ.com)
Sens. Ray Lesniak (D-Union) and Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) said the bill — which was up for passage on Thursday — instead will likely be introduced in the Assembly Judiciary Committee in preparation for a vote by the lower house.
Meanwhile anti-equality Democrats are getting pressured.
Lawmakers said phones in their district offices continued to ring off the hook this week, with in-state and out-of-state opponents and advocates burning up the lines of Democratics senators committed to opposing gay marriage.
“Most of us have spent the last week, even just alone in our district offices fielding questions and speaking to folks, advocates and detractors of the gay marriage bill about this issue,” said Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-Cape May), who said he will vote against the bill.
As this debate plays out across the nation, I am finding that for me this is becoming less of a “agree to disagree” issue.
I am no longer willing to accept as a credible position that I am inferior to other citizens, that my rights are not equal to thiers and I am not qualified to determine to whom I should be married.
I no longer see this as “a slowly shifting cultural perspective”. I no longer find that “good people just haven’t gotten there yet”. I can no longer accept that others have “their own moral beliefs which have to be respected.”
There are no credible arguments that argue in favor of a need for discrimination against gay couples. This has become abundantly evident in the debates in the New York Senate and the New Jersey Judiciary Committee. Those who opposed equality either did so silently – I suspect shamefully – or couched their objection in the language of bigotry.
Opponents of equality are left with nothing more than an appeal to their own religion, their own biases, or those of their constituents. No principled objections are made because none exist.
After all of the fiery denunciations of the homosexual agenda and pleas for “the children”, after all of the lobbying and praying and faith-based lying through their teeth, after all has been said, this simple truth remains: Either you believe in equal rights for all citizens or you do not.
Senator Jeff Van Drew does not.
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Ken in Riverside
December 9th, 2009
You forgot the deference to majority opinion. Sigh.
Amicus
December 12th, 2009
As this debate plays out across the nation, I am finding that for me this is becoming less of a “agree to disagree†issue.
========
Yes, yes, yes!
Marriage for gay and lesbian couples and their families IS the compromise, the *civil* compromise. Religious institutions and groups can do as they please.
Amicus
December 12th, 2009
Timothy,
Perhaps try my latest on him?
http://bootstrappingas.blogspot.com/2009/12/open-letter-to-his-holiness-and-sinner.html
Even if not, I’d be interested in whether you think it hits the mark.
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