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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 lobbyFebruary 17th, 2012
John Aravosis found this burried in a Baltimore Sun article:
He (Republican Del. Wade Kach) also became the target of a last-minute lobby effort, and said his voice mail was full of messages from important people, including ( former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken) Mehlman, (New York Mayor Michael) Bloomberg and an offer to talk with former Vice President Dick Cheney, whom Kach regards as a “great man.” All three are recognized for their support of gay rights issues. (Emphasis mine.)
Yesterday, Del. Kach announced that he will cast his vote in support of a bill to provide marriage equality in Maryland. The bill is now before the Maryland House of Delegates. A vote may come as early as today.
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Timothy Kincaid
February 17th, 2012
It’s true we don’t have many Republicans on our side in this issue. But the few we do from Cheney to Olson to Walker to Ware have been giants. Two of these, luck of the draw, we’re essential, one is the abslute best possible attorney we could ever have dreamed of, and one is revered by people like Kach. It almost seems like some impossible plot in a poorly drafted novel.
Sebaspace
February 17th, 2012
What?!!!!
Blow me down with a feather!
Blake
February 17th, 2012
The following has been bouncing around in my head for some time & I’ve recently seen new evidence which makes me think there might be some truth to my suspicions.
In MD the main impediment for same sex marriage comes in the form of religious black people. So how much of the anti-marriage drive from that group is due to the lack of communication between openly gay people and them. Be it their friends, family or neighbors. Are they still in the straight-bubble where gays are all ‘others’?
I was at a meeting the other night regarding a gay bashing in the Pittsburgh community in Atlanta. The majority of the people there were black. The organizer of the meeting and the rally said he “came out of the closet for this”. As he explained, he put a lot on the line & publicly acknowledged his sexuality for the first time so that he could be an advocate for the victim in this case. This was an Activist. This is a person I’ve seen around town. This is a person who I thought was out already. If the activists are in the closet to their families and their church-going friends, how many others in black gay community are?
I don’t think its any persons’ fault; being closeted seems much more comfortable while you’re in it, but perhaps what’s needed in the black community to turn the tide toward support for gay marriage is a Harvey Milk like figure who encourages them to be out. All the time out. Not just out to friends & other gays, but out at Church & out at home. People are working at this message from indirect ways (Jesse Jackson & John Lewis for two) but I don’t see anyone, publicly at least, speaking out from a black perspective.
I ask here b/c I see Cheney’s support & clearly his daughter clearly
influences his support & if she wasn’t out to him…
My suspicion is hinted at here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/us/maryland-gay-marriage-faces-black-skepticism.html
Check out the quote from Ezekiel Jackson therein: “The culture [Black Culture] is different. Gay people got pushed off into their own circle. Instead of dealing with it, they just lived their lives among like minds, apart.â€
TampaZeke
February 17th, 2012
Come to the Light Side Darth Cheney…it is your DESTINY!
If we are to win this fight for equality, justice and acceptance we will need loud voices and hard work from all sides of the spectrum.
Michael Bedwell
February 17th, 2012
PUH-LEEZE! What is it about noxious, unindicted war criminal Cheney that keeps resulting in him being given credit he doesn’t deserve? Though he MIGHT have “evolved” since then, Cheney’s 2009 statement on marriage equality was almost universally misinterpreted. He simultaneously said that gay couples should have the freedom to marry AND it
“ought to be handled on a state-by-state basis”—which translates as supporting both their right to legalize OR ban. Last year he reiterated his “freedom means freedom for everybody” statement on “The View,” without repeating or retracting his two-faced “states’ rights” position. This alleged availability to individually lobby for Maryland couples doesn’t change that, nor am I aware of any call on his part for repeal of DOMA without which state legalization is largely irrelevant.
And he didn’t endorse repeal of the military ban on gays until after he was out of office where,as SECDEF, he’d tried to have the pro-gay service members PERSEREC studies destroyed, then withheld from the attorneys for discharged gay Annapolis sailor Joe Steffan and Cong. Gerry Studds & Patricia Schroeder. When a copy was leaked to them, his office attacked the studies saying they were invalid.
He was repeatedly credited for having said that the ban was “something of an old chestnut,” but he was actually referring to the decoades’ old claim that gay troops were security risks, NOT condemning the ban itself.
Until he publicly apologizes to the over 10,000 gay service members who were kicked to the curb during his combined reigns as DEFSEC and VPOTUS, such reporters should hold off on the statue building.
andrew
February 17th, 2012
Cheney’s lesbian daughter has had a huge impact on his views on this subject. He stood out in W’s administration for NOT kowtowing the the Constitutional Amendment crowd. I personally loathe the man for a multitude of other issues, but unlike other GOPers with gay family members (like Gingrich and Bachmann) who are still rabidly anti-gay, I can appreciate his transformation on this issue. And yeah, I’m not holding my breath for Cheney to apologize for anything. Horrible guy? Absolutely. Belongs in prison? Probably. But if he can swing the occasional person who’s still in office, I’m not going to bitch so loud.
gar
February 17th, 2012
As andrew said, I have major conflicts with VP Cheney over many issues — some of which he probably should have been prosecuted over. However, I do give him props for standing by his lesbian daughters. So many other conservatives throw their lgbt offspring/relatives under the bus.
gar
February 17th, 2012
*daughter (singular) was meant.
Charles
February 17th, 2012
Am I the only one that remembers that Pete Williams, a gay man, was the Pentagon spokesperson during the first Gulf War when Dick Cheney was Secretary of Defense? Am I the only person who remembers that the jerk John Edwards attacked Dick Cheney in one of their debates back in 2004 over Cheney’s support of gay rights? Even Barry Goldwater, Mr. Conservative, a staunch Republican supported gay rights. There are Republicans that are on our side. I am one of them.
As for Cheney being a war criminal, forget it. Obama hasn’t changed a darn thing that Bush and Cheney were forced to implement after 9/11. Grow up folks, we live in a dangerous somewhat looney world where there are no easy answers.
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