David Lampo is the author of A Fundamental Freedom: Why Republicans, Conservatives, and Libertarians Should Support Gay Rights, and he serves on the national board of Log Cabin Republicans.
Posted on 05/30/2014 1:41:37 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
If conservatives don’t embrace the inevitable, they'll become irrelevant.
Since last year, the progress toward marriage equality has been nothing less than stunning. Nearly a year ago, the Supreme Court granted full federal recognition of married same-sex couples in declaring the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional. In rapid succession since then, federal judges in 13 states have overturned their state’s respective bans on same sex unions. The latest was last week in Pennsylvania, when Judge John E. Jones III, a G. W. Bush appointee, overturned the ban, writing, “We are a better people than what these laws represent.” Because Republican Gov. Tom Corbett has declined to appeal the judge’s decision, Pennsylvania is now the 19th state to legalize same-sex marriage.
Federal judges have ruled against the bans as diverse as Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia. Gay marriage isn’t just for blue states anymore.
One of the most eloquent statements against the bans was issued earlier this month by Arkansas federal judge Chris Piazza, who argued that state’s ban violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. “Procreation is not a prerequisite in Arkansas for a marriage license,” he said. “Opposite-sex couples may choose not to have children or they may be infertile, and certainly we are beyond trying to protect the gene pool. A marriage license is a civil document and is not, nor can it be, based upon any particular faith. Same-sex couples are a morally disliked minority and the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages is driven by animus rather than a rational basis. This violates the U.S. Constitution.”
These cases, and the others that will likely follow, can lead to just one thing: another historic case about gay marriage before the Supreme Court, one that could establish a constitutional right to marriage equality, something few legal experts thought would happen so soon after last year’s DOMA case.
Public opinion on this issue is marching forward as well. According to a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, 59 percent of Americans now support gay marriage. Only a third opposes it, nearly the reverse of the same poll 10 years ago. Forty percent of Republicans support it, and nearly 60 percent of Republicans between the ages of 18 and 29. Even 51 percent of white evangelicals under 35 support it, according to the Public Religion Research Institute.
And yet the Christian Right, or at least most of its self-proclaimed leaders, just won’t let it go. In mid-May, a group of them called the Conservative Action Project met outside Washington, D.C., to plot their next moves and devise their agenda to push back against the Republican leadership in Congress, whom they see as too soft on Obama and his agenda. Mainstream business groups like the Chamber of Commerce, which is keen to see a GOP takeover of the Senate after missed opportunities in 2010 and 2012, are siding with the leadership.
Although some of the attendees do not share the Conservative Action Project’s anti-gay agenda, most of them do. At the mid-May meeting, they reaffirmed their explicit opposition to same-sex marriage along with opposition to abortion and illegal immigration reform. Tony Perkins, head of the anti-gay Family Research Council, led a panel about restoring the “traditional family” as a Republican Party priority, as if almost universal opposition to gay rights has not been the party’s priority for several decades.
Polling consistently shows that independents, younger voters and women—all of whom used to routinely vote Republican in presidential contests—are now more often than not reliable Democrat voters. They are also pro-gay rights and same-sex marriage, especially younger voters. Unless Republicans begin to win some of them back with policies of social tolerance, they will simply no longer be in contention in presidential elections. Slavish devotion to right-wing social policies is the road to oblivion on the national stage.
So it’s time to stop letting the anti-gay tail wag the Republican dog. The Christian Right spokesmen’s pious pleas for tolerance for their anti-gay religious convictions will fall on deaf ears (and should) as long as they continue their own intolerance for those who practice different faiths or have different sexual orientations than they do.
Ending their tight grip on the party’s social agenda, and its 2016 platform, must be the top priority of those who wish to bring the Republican Party into the 21st century and make it appeal to more than just old white men.
David Lampo is the author of A Fundamental Freedom: Why Republicans, Conservatives, and Libertarians Should Support Gay Rights, and he serves on the national board of Log Cabin Republicans.
What has been done can be undone.
A few years from now, lampo will be making the same arguments in favor of pedophilia and bestiality.
Once marriage is no longer restricted to one man and one woman, there can be no legal limitations on it at all that will not be found unconstitutional.
Thus, the institution will be destroyed and with it our society.
That 2% of the population has succeeded in foisting this on the other 98% is nothing short of astounding.
Because of this crap America will soon be irrelevant in the eyes of God.
Consider that a handful of judges have imposed fag marriage on what are supposed to be fifty free, self-governing republics.
God punishes national sins with national calamities.
I think that’s the point the tyrannists keep missing. The bulk of the population are against being dictated to and, at some point if sufficiently motivated, can push back a lot harder and eliminate the enemy in one fell swoop.
History shows legalized gay marriage and the acceptance of homosexuality in society in general will destroy our nation. First comes moral collapse then comes the judgment of that nation.
and certainly we are beyond trying to protect the gene pool. A marriage license is a civil document and is not, nor can it be, based upon any particular faith. Same-sex couples are a morally disliked minority and the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages is driven by animus rather than a rational basis. This violates the U.S. Constitution.Heh. Just wow. Did this cretin overturn laws against intrafamily marriage? "we are beyond trying to protect the gene pool."
And being opposed is based on aniumus, so being opposed is unconstitutional. To borrow the author's characterization, "How eloquent."
The arguments like procreation isn’t a prerequisite is about as assinine as you can get, since the whole premise of marriage was designed to join people together to form strong families and GROW communities!!
The same argument can be made AGAINST homosexual-marriage: love is not a prerequisite for marriage otherwise we wouldn’t allow for easy annulments and quick easier divorces!
The crazy, far reaching arguments will open the door for people to marry their parents and siblings - since procreation isn’t a component anymore!!
The Pandora’s box with which these idiots are toying is going to destroy not only the moral fabric of America but also the financial future as well!! You think American money is tied up in the elites today, wait until families can hide and shift their fortunes from generation to generation a-la Royal families!
The progs are fond of asking, “What would Jesus do?”. Do they really believe that Jesus would be “pro-choice”, and approve of “gay” “marriage”?
If conservatives don’t embrace the inevitable …Marxists have been saying that for how many years now? About 166 years. Only tyrants demand that people “embrace the inevitable” which is not.
What Jesus would do is written down for all to see. But they insist on denying that.
>> the inevitable
So now it’s taxes, sodomy, and death...
They will try to eliminate inter-generational inheritance altogether so that upon death, the state absorbs all assets.
“Abolition of all rights of inheritance” is the third plank of the Ten Planks of Communism as outlined in the Manifesto.
Gay marriage will destroy the United States.
Government Marriage is not the same by definition as Biblical Marriage. Therefore, there should be a differentiation of spelling to convey which marriage is in effect. Both may have the same rights for Government benefits, but one is sanctioned by God's Word and the other by Government which either replaces God or copies another Law of Old for the socialist masses.
The ObamaNationist's made legal travel of known AIDS carriers outside the US legal for military personnel and diplomats as a first order of business - breaking our treaties to limit AIDS.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.