Deluded catching up

Those wacky bigots in the anti-gay industry have just realised that a Republican Member of the US Congress has signed on to co-sponsor the repeal of the US’ notorious “Defense [sic] of Marriage Act” (DOMA) I suppose that since the bigots live entirely in the past, they had to wait for this to be old news before they noticed.

US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican from Miami, recently became the first member of her party to co-sponsor the “Respect for Marriage Act”, which would repeal DOMA. The chief sponsor of the “Respect for Marriage Act” is US Representative Jerald Nadler (D-NY), who has also championed immigration equality for GLBT bi-national couples. The bill has 124 co-sponsors.

The bigots at the hate group National Organization for Man-Lady Only Marriage posted on their blog, “First Republican Jumps Ship, Supports Repeal of DOMA”, as if opposing repeal of DOMA was a requirement to be a Republican; maybe in their fantasy world it is, but in the reality-based community, things are very different.

Head bigot at the “Family” Research [sic] Council, Tony Perkins, chimed in, sneering that Rep. Ros-Lehtinen was “never a big fan of family issues,” because obviously only far rightwing nutjob Republicans marching in lock step with religious extremists can ever be “pro-family”. Perkins said she’s “joined the dark side”. Yeah, well, Perkins knows a thing or two about the dark side, having donated to the KKK and supported white supremacist groups.

Of course, as usual, Tony also flat out lies. He said that the goal of the Respect for Marriage Act is to “overturn the state laws and 42 state constitutional amendments by redefining [sic] marriage at the federal level.” That’s bullshit, as he well knows. The legislation would simply repeal DOMA (which Tony always likes to call “bi-partisan” as if that somehow makes it legitimate and untouchable). As such, it deals only with federal law and the recognition of legal same-sex marriages by the federal government. Those state laws and amendments can only be overturned by the US Supreme Court.

These loud protestations from the frothing radical right demonstrates that we can expect to see more mainstream-leaning Republicans supporting not just repeal of DOMA, but also full marriage quality. It is inevitable.


A study by Baylor University has found that 88% of those with no religious affiliation support marriage equality, and 92% support civil unions—about as close to unanimity as an issue gets. Among the religious, 45% of Catholics support marriage equality, as do 43% of African American Protestants, 40% of “Mainline Protestants” (my own background) and even 37% of Evangelicals. The important thing here is that the levels of support continue to rise over time—even among the bigots’ own political base.

Majorities of all religious groups now support civil unions (which the bigots oppose as much as marriage equality—part of why they’re correctly called “bigots”): 64% of Catholics, 52% of African American Protestants, 61% of “Mainline Protestants” and a whopping 59% of Evangelicals.

The bigots continue to support a losing proposition and in light of that have taken to wilful deception and downright delusion to pretend they’re winning. Take for example a comment on the hate group’s blog:

“This move by this Republican member of Congress should be a signal to those in the other party: this is not a partisan issue…

"If other Democrats don't speak out in defense of (traditional) marriage, then their party will see large-scale defections, especially if the party decides to put a pro-gay-marriage clause in its platform. When they did that with abortion, look what happened. Democrats: don't make the same mistake twice.”

This is one of the most laughably stupid things I’ve seen anyone post. Democrats’ support for reproductive choice and women’s issues generally has provided a home for those driven out of the Republican Party by the religious extremists—it has increased Democrats’ support. There will never be “large-scale defections” of Democrats because, most importantly, our side is in the majority, and also because the Republican Party has long been seen as fierce opponents of GLBT equality. So, if there were any conservative Democrats who felt that the single most important political issue was preventing marriage equality, they would already have switched parties.

Crazy as that comment is, I think it shows the mindset of the anti-gay industry and those who support it: Up is down, day is night, etc. But their wrong will never be right, no matter how much they try to convince us—or themselves. Eventually, they may even catch up with those of us in the reality-based universe. We shouldn’t hold our breath, however: Their delusions are deep and wide, and it will take them a long time to catch up.