Dickhead of the Week: Tim Pawlenty

I’ve been pretty consistent about calling-out politicians when they’re being complete dickheads about GLBT people. Minnesota’s Republican Governor, Tim Pawlenty, wins the Dickhead of the Week award for promising to veto a Minnesota state law to allow gay people to make funeral arrangements for their deceased partner, and to sue in the case of wrongful death of their partner.

If this sounds familiar, Rhode Island’s dickhead Republican Governor, Donald Carcieri, vetoed a similar law in that state in late 2009 (the state legislature easily over-rode Carcieri’s veto). At the time, I called him a “heartless bastard” (because he is), but his veto was motivated by his far rightwing, extremist Roman Catholicism.

Unlike Carcieri, Pawlenty has no ready-made excuse. Instead, he merely claimed it was “unnecessary”. Pawlenty knows damn well that’s nonsense, so he’s also a liar. All married couples—and gay people can’t get married in Minnesota—get this right automatically, no questions asked. Gay couples, Pawlenty claimed, can get this right by drawing up wills—which can’t give the surviving partner the right to sue.

Many gay people in America are estranged from their families, and gay couples often aren’t designated as each other’s “next of kin” as married partners are automatically. So, the blood family of the deceased can swoop in and take over all decisions on what happens to the deceased. It’s practically impossible that this could happen to a married couple. How many times do I have to keep repeating this? Gay people in America are NOT equal to their heterosexual family members.

Tim Pawlenty knows all this. He’s lying about the lack of need for this bill because he’s running for president in 2012 and he needs to establish his extremist credentials among the frothing christianists who now control the Republican Party. Being wrong about this issue is one thing. Lying about it makes it worse. But lying about and using it for political advantage makes Tim Pawlenty a total dickhead.

Tip o’ the Hat to Joe.My.God., where I first read about this.