Thursday, August 30, 2012

A declaration of war

Timothy Kincaid of Box Turtle Bulletin takes an extensive look at the gay issues in the GOP platform now "emphatically approved" by the full convention.

* End the Death Tax. Estates of straight couples automatically pass to the spouse. Estates of gay couples get taxed. Ending the estate tax for everyone would end the disparity. This is the only pro-gay thing in the platform. Kincaid doesn't mention whether repealing the estate tax is a good thing for the society and economy as a while. In my opinion it isn't.

* There is a fine statement that says discrimination is unacceptable and immoral. But sexual orientation and gender identity are noted for their absence. Yup, discrimination against gay people is moral.

* In a long sentence about restoring the relationship between the Executive and the Congress (where they list Obama's sins) is the phrase "refusing to defend the nation's laws in federal courts" which can only refer to Obama's refusal to defend the Defense of Marriage Act.

* Defense of Marriage against an activist judiciary. Can't have them ordering marriage equality.

* Defense of Marriage. The Act is a good thing and a constitutional amendment is even better.

* First Amendment rights. Faith based institutions should not have to denounce their faith to fully participate in public programs. We support the Boy Scouts, condemn blacklisting religious groups that refuse adoptions to same-sex couples, and condemn hate campaigns against against advocates of traditional marriage. Kincaid says this does not condemn hate campaigns that are waged by advocates of traditional marriage. This is a declaration of war against gay people.

* The plank encouraging adoption thankfully doesn't mention gay people, which implies they don't mind us adopting. And their support of adoption is quite a good statement.

* If we're going to have enough money to do significant research on cancer and diabetes, we must stop funding research on AIDS.

* That stuff about Defense of Marriage -- we intend to enforce it in the military too.

* We should not couple foreign aid with a country's laws on homosexuality and abortion, but should allow faith-based groups access to grants for projects in foreign countries. Yes, the "rule of law" excludes gay rights.

Kincaid concludes:
It’s an angry rant by an increasingly isolated people who seem to mistrust and resent the rest of the world around them; and no one more so than those of us who are gay.



The Occupy Wall Street organizations are actively protesting the GOP convention. They say to use the Occupy blog as a news source because the mainstream media won't be covering the protests. I can't independently verify that claim because the only news source I listen to on a daily basis is NPR and I've been avoiding their convention coverage lately. Even so, it is good to see the OWS descriptions and photos.

At the bottom of their post is the message from OWS to law enforcement (which were out in "insane" numbers): We will be peaceful. We're not the enemy. You're getting screwed just like we are.

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