Posted on 10/19/2004 7:11:08 PM PDT by knak
US News, Los Angeles - American gays, branded sinners by the Christian right, are waging an all-out battle to eject President George Bush from power in the November 2 poll.
Furious over Bush's support of a federal constitutional amendment that would have banned homosexual marriage, they are determined to prevent Bush from winning another four years in the White House.
And on the same day they pick a new president, residents of 11 American states will vote on state ballot initiatives aimed at banning gay matrimony. 'A lot of homosexuals who usually don't vote are going to vote this time'
Bush wants a constitutional amendment that would effectively ban same sex marriages.
The row over whether marriage should be defined as the exclusive union of a man and a woman came after Massachusetts state legalised gay marriage last November and the city of San Francisco in February defiantly began marrying homosexual couples to protest a state ban on the practice.
The gay wedding fever and the subsequent attempts to crack down on the wave widened an already uneasy gulf between the Bush administration and the country's estimated 28 million homosexuals.
"The whole gay community is against Bush and a lot of homosexuals who usually don't vote are going to vote this time," said Stan Stansbury, 55, a gay activist who lives in the liberal city of Berkeley, near San Francisco.
"I am more active than I have ever been in opposing Bush because this president is so right wing," said the liberal who distributes pamphlets and does internet lobbying to urge voters to defeat Bush on November 2.
"Bush is clearly courting the right wing Christian fundamentalists and they are the ones who damage gay rights and gay safety in this country," he fumed.
Gay community leaders said the community felt insulted by the stance of the Republican administration and party, which at its national convention in September adopted a conservative platform strongly rejecting calls for gay marriage and abortion rights.
Even Republican gays feel they have been marginalised by the administration's swing to the right.
"They've decided to use gay families as wedge issues across America in swing states and that is truly outrageous," said Patrick Guerriero, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, the party's leading gay bloc that has withdrawn its endorsement of Bush over the federal marriage amendment issue.
"Our members have been insulted by a campaign that has attempted to amend the constitution," he said.
The organisation last week filed a lawsuit challenging the US military over the controversial 1993 "Don't Ask, don't tell" law that allows homosexuals to serve as soldiers provided they do not disclose their sexuality.
Bush's Democratic election rival, John Kerry, also opposes the constitutional amendment, but like Bush, he maintains marriage should be confined to a man and a woman.
But even though Kerry does not back gay marriage, Jim Key of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center believes homosexuals and their friends and families will turn on Bush and his policies when they cast ballots.
"Bush is going to get less support than ever after certain policies such as federal marriage amendment - that could hurt him really bad among the community," he said, stressing that his organisation is non-partisan.
"Kerry, on the contrary, has been one of the strongest supporters of gays in Congress," he said.
But 56-year-old San Francisco-area resident Beau Cain said he would not support either of mainstream candidate as neither defends gay rights. Instead, he will vote for Libertarian party candidate Michael Badnarik.
"When my friends tell me my vote is wasted, I say: 'I would rather vote for what I want and not get it rather than vote for what I don't want and get plenty of it," said the technical writing professor from California State University at San Jose.
Well, let us see now -
The states that have passed the marriage issue so far - have been high in number and are against the change they want -
I don't see a reason to worry even if everyone of them did as that guy suggest -
Perhaps they are upset that - as a small group - they aren't getting their way as easy as they were "led" to believe - and maybe won't even get it if, for some reason, the whole nation goes crazy and Kerry is elected - Kleenex needed
I don't think so.
Why don't these angry "gay" people MOVE to ANOTHER COUNTRY?
"The gay wedding fever and the subsequent attempts to crack down on the wave widened an already uneasy gulf between the Bush administration and the country's estimated 28 million homosexuals. "
Oh, PLEASE - Give me a break.
Only about 1% of our population is "gay" and very angry.
"Bush's Democratic election rival, John Kerry, also opposes the constitutional amendment, but like Bush, he maintains marriage should be confined to a man and a woman. "
That's B.S.. Just hte other day he admitted that his "mind could be changed about "gay" marriage. The truth is Kerry WOULD support it.
"Kerry, on the contrary, has been one of the strongest supporters of gays in Congress," he said.
Yup! He will be as President too. It's just another issue he is lying about and trying to cover up how liberal he really is.
WOW! American gays endorsing Kerry and Badnarik over Bush.
Is the gay vote that significant in the United States? I doubt it seriously. The number of "angry" gay voters are going to be drowned out by a huge turnout of determined Christian conservatives, especially in those states like Ohio and Michigan that have gay marriage amendments on their ballots. Even the Democrats aren't openly courting the gay vote because they know they're toast if they do.
That's what I said. 10%? Hardly.
Hey this is a core value of Kerry's. You know this. what this is a core value. Kerry's core values. this and these. All depends on the meaning of this. "I really married up"
Get out and vote Republican! (just be aware of who's standing behind you in line;)))
Anything to make Conservative Christians sound bad.
Gays rejected bush long before this election. That is their problem.
It sure does.
(Thanks for the ping. I'll ping the list.)
Homosexual Agenda Ping.
28 million homosexuals????
And 28 million is 2% of how many? I never got that far in math. The population of the US would have to be really huge to have that many avowed homosexuals.
I'm sure Bush will be absolute devastated by the loss of the "gay" vote.
How many homosexuals are there compared to people who don't like the idea of "gay" marriage? All we need to do is check the votes for and against defense of marriage amendments in various states. Heheheh.
Let me and Scripter know if anyone wants on/off this ping list.
Yeah, and if we let them get married then that means there will be 56 million of them.
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