Lingle’s Veto of Hawaii Civil Union Law Is Wrong

In other words, Gov. Lingle believes that certain public policy decisions are so fundamental to the nature of society that they cannot properly be made by the elected representatives of the people, but only by the people themselves. This seems to me to be in the grand tradition of passing the buck on a controversial issue.

Interestingly, in 1998, the people of Hawaii voted the opposite, when they adopted an amendment to the state constitution in response to litigation over same-sex marriage…

…The amendment differs from all the other state constitutional amendments that have been passed on the subject of same-sex marriage. All those other amendments forbid same-sex marriage, and some go further to forbid any substantially similar status for unmarried people, thus tying the hands of state legislatures that might otherwise be willing to enact civil union or domestic partnership laws. But the people of Hawaii did not go that far. Instead, they amended their constitution to provide that the subject of same-sex marriage is for the legislature to decide, not the courts. (And, by implication, not the people through a referendum vote.) The people of Hawaii amended their constitution to empower the legislature to deal with the subject.

And now Governor Lingle turns things on their head by saying the legislature should not decide.

What #*$&ing planet are you from? Here on Earth, when bigots do bigoted crap, we call them on it–we don’t make excuses for them.

That will teach the Jewish governor :-)

Seriously, I am with you, but you are being far too tame. I believe that actions like Lingle’s, which apparently happened just after she spent time at Pride with PFLAG members, demand nothing less than shunning.

I am of the camp that bigotry=believing straight people are better than gays, no matter how nice or “tolerant” you might be to LGBT people in your life. And I am very sure there are such people in Lingle’s life, whether she’s a self-hating closet case or not. Those people need to simply cut off their reliationships with her. I understand the leader of the Hawaii House is a gay man – he should refuse to interact with the Governor unless it is directly required by his professional duties. Any other LGBT people that regularly run into Lingle – and I mean down to the waiter at her favorite restaurant – should refuse to have any personal relationship with her. If you’re a Hawaii LGBT business owner, refuse to allow the Governor in your place of business (it’s totally legal to refuse service to any individual, as long as your reason is specific to that person). Don’t wait on her at the Post Office, don’t smile at her when she passes you in the Hall, and if she tries to interact with you, tell her she’s a bigot and turn your back.

Denying gays and lesbians the same rights heterosexuals have is an act of overt hostility. Its baffling that you can’t see that and regularly want to show deference to those who seek to hurt us – must be stockholm syndrome.

Regan said “why choose a bigoted policy if you are not in fact a bigot?”.

Exactly.

“I was similarly touched by the mother who in the same office expressed anguish at the prospect of the public schools teaching her children that a mixed-race marriage was equivalent to their mother and father’s racially pure marriage.”

For all this “thinking of the children,” I wonder how often Lingle thinks of the children of gay couples. “Sorry sweetie, your family isn’t a real family, you have 2 mommies!”