Burnt Orange Report
News, Politics, and Fun From Deep in the Heart of Texas
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Burnt Orange ReportNews, Politics, and Fun From Deep in the Heart of Texas |
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November 20, 2004The Second Term Bush GLBT AgendaBy Byron LaMastersYou think I'm kidding, right? Nope. Gay conservative Boi From Troy puts together a four-point GLBT agenda for Bush's second term:
My first reaction was you gotta be kidding. Of these, I only consider the first to be a GLBT issue. As I wrote in Boi From Troy's comments, there are inequities in Social Security and the tax code against the GLBT community, but the way of addressing those issues is not to simply do away with any tax that discriminates against gays and lesbians in relationships unrecognized by the federal government -- but to get the federal government to recognize those relationships. As for child deductions -- as I wrote in Boi From Troy's comments, he seems to be forgetting the millions of kids growing up in GLBT families. Marriage equality is the ultimate goal, but I do agree with Boi From Troy that marriage is currently a defensive battle and that Civil Unions and domestic partnerships at all levels of government are a step in the right direction (although it's key that marriage remain an option for the future -- states ought to reject constitutional amendments that put in place Civil Unions and ban same-sex marriage -- as Massachusetts has proposed). I think that Boi From Troy commenter Downtown Lad put together a much more realistic second term Bush GLBT agenda:
Yeah. If the gay community can hope to expect anything in the sense of progress over the next four years from the federal governement, these are three issues where we might have a chance... but I won't lose any sleep over it. Posted by Byron LaMasters at November 20, 2004 03:32 PM | TrackBackComments
That's an interesting way for them to frame child deductions. It's discrimination against homosexuals! Why do Democrats hate gays? Posted by: political at November 20, 2004 04:26 PMA more likely scenario for a Bush GLBT agenda consists of box cars and camps. Posted by: WhoMe? at November 20, 2004 08:10 PMThat comment is not appropriate. Posted by: chrisken at November 20, 2004 09:26 PMWhy is it not appropriate? If the right wing elements in this country has its way (and they are claiming a mandate for their "moral" polciies), that would be the administration's policy: right wing religious leaders saying that 9-11 was G-d's retribution against NYC because the is tolerant of gays; another prominent religious leader saying that he would murder anyone gay that "eyed him funny;" a Senate Majority Leader calling gays a diseased lot, and a within weeks a young gay man is beaten and run up on a fence left to die, etc., etc., etc. If one looks at 1930s Germany, the Wansee Solution did not occur overnight - it followed years of incremental oppression. Today, we amend the Constitution to deny a class of people their rights; tommorrow, who knows what lurks. Posted by: WhoMe? at November 21, 2004 03:30 AMThanks for the link man! Cool blog - I'll add it to my blogroll. I've learned that the way to deal with this administration is to expect the least - and then expect to be disappointed after that. Downtown Lad (Gay Conservative) I just want to chime in to say that Whome?'s comments do have relevance here. For those unaware of such things, Berlin in the 1920's had a very thriving gay community which was very out in the open. There was a library there that stored all sorts of gay themed literature. Basically, Berlin was the San Francisco of the 1920's for gay people. In a period of only four years, the Nazi party decided that the gays made a good scapegoat to advance their racial purity agenda, and destroyed the library, the gay owned businesses, and shipped as many out gays as possible off to the camps. By 1937, there was no open gay community whatsoever in Berlin. Those who do not know their past are doomed to repeat it. Posted by: grnwayrob at November 22, 2004 08:15 PMPost a comment
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