Vilified and harassed

The Mormons and, to a lesser extent, the Catholic Church, are miffed at the strength of the protests now aimed in their direction. The Mormons are even claiming it is wrong to criticize the church for taking part in the democratic process. Wrong answer. Yes, you have the right of free speech (though we wish you wouldn't lie so much when you speak), but free speech does not mean you can't be criticized. That is merely free speech on our side. And we are going to do that. Especially after such nonsense as this, coming from the Mormon church:

Once again, we call on those involved in the debate over same-sex marriage to act in a spirit of mutual respect and civility towards each other. No one on either side of the question should be vilified, harassed or subject to erroneous information.

Sorry guys, what you spouted over the last two months was nothing but erroneous information that vilified and harassed gays. You deserve what's coming at you.


But that little bit of criticism isn't going to stop either the Mormons or Catholics. The next target probably won't be North Carolina (as was suggested a couple days ago) even if they might be ripe for the picking. There are a couple states that are more urgent: New York (where the Gov. is in favor and a marriage bill has passed the state assembly) and New Jersey, where Domestic Partnerships are legal and lots of people (not just gays) recognize that DPs fall short of equal protection. The coalition that brought the ban to Calif. is ready to use the same lies again. You have been warned.


Not only are the Fundies gloating over their wins against gays, they are puffing out chests on the abortion front too, even though the abortion ban failed in South Dakota and the "fetus citizen" proposal failed in Colorado. An organization named Personhood USA wants to copy the Colo. effort in the 17 states that have citizen amendment initiatives. Michigan is one of them. In addition to attempting to ban abortion, a fetus citizen leads to some legal tangles: Is a miscarriage to be treated as manslaughter? If the fetus is unwanted can it be convicted of trespassing? I should update an opinion from a couple days ago: A federal Supremes ruling enabling gay marriage will not slow down the attempts to harass gays with laws, at least not until a couple generations have passed on.


In the meantime news that the black population voted for the Calif. ban at a rate of 70% while most other ethnic groups (including whites) voted for it at a 52% rate (I think). This is, of course, causing all kinds of racial angst by gay groups, which are mostly white, even though the higher percentage of blacks would have made little difference in the outcome. The supporters of the ban were clearly conservative churches, most of which are white, so why are blacks being tarred? The anti-gay forces are gleefully watching the split and strategizing about how they might exploit it. Ouch!


A ray of sunshine: Maine adopted DPs in 2004 and, again, there is growing recognition that more protections are needed. Equality Maine has workers outside 100 polling places hoping to get 10,000 signatures in support of gay marriage. They got that count by noon, then had to scramble for more cards or just anything to write on. By the end of the day they had over 33,000 signatures. This doesn't appear a step in getting gay marriage on the ballot, only to tell legislators how much support there is. Even so, Equality Maine -- mindful of Calif. etc. -- will be working to make sure the hearts and minds of the state are ready to follow.


Another ray: Sweden will likely get gender neutral marriage by next May. They are aiming for "gender neutral" because that's the term that will get past of one of the government's coalition parties.