A McCain Presidency = LGBT Citizen's Nightmare

Meanwhile, John McCain continues to demonstrate that he should be regarded as every LGBT citizen’s worse nightmare and illustrates why, in my opinion, the Log Cabin Republicans who support him need some serious mental health care. Lately, McCain’s offered so many reasons for gays not to support him that it is almost difficult to know where to start. These positions on multiple issues make it clear that all LGBT Americans should be working diligently to make sure he is NOT elected come November. First, McCain has come out in support of the effort to amend the California Constitution to ban gay marriage. Here are highlights from PR Newswire on McCain’s support of the anti-gay initiative in California:
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SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- United States Senator John McCain today announced his support for the California Protection of Marriage initiative on the state's November ballot, leaders of the ProtectMarriage.com campaign announced. In an email received by the ProtectMarriage.com campaign, Senator McCain issued the following statement: "I support the efforts of the people of California to recognize marriage as a unique institution between a man and a woman, just as we did in my home state of Arizona. I do not believe judges should be making these decisions."
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If that is not reason enough to fear a McCain presidency, then there are his views on what type of individual’s he would nominate to the U. S. Supreme Court. In his statements, McCain has idicated that he would nominate individuals like Roberts, Alito and Scalia. As Judith E. Schaeffer at Huffington Post notes, with more justices like Robert, Alito, Scalia and Thomas, gays would still be criminalized under the sodomy statutes and Lawrence v. Texas would have been decided very differently. Here are highlights from her column:
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Many people probably don't recall much, if anything, about June 26, 2003, but I recall a great deal. That's because it's the day on which the Supreme Court issued one of its most important rulings in the area of individual rights and human dignity. In Lawrence v. Texas, a sharply divided Court struck down a Texas state law that prohibited consensual, private sex between adults of the same gender, a law that essentially made criminals out of gay men and lesbians. Five justices held that the law was an improper intrusion on the right to liberty guaranteed to everyone by the Constitution, effectively invalidating all state laws that invade the home to prohibit so-called sodomy.
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But as significant as the Lawrence ruling was, I am mindful that four justices did not join Justice Kennedy's majority opinion. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who was part of the majority in Bowers (truly a low point in her judicial career as well), declined to join the majority in overruling that decision. She agreed, however, that the Texas "sodomy" law was unconstitutional, but only because it treated same-sex and opposite-sex couples differently.
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Three justices dissented outright from the ruling in Lawrence: then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Scalia and Thomas are still on the bench today. The late Chief Justice Rehnquist has been replaced by the equally ultraconservative John Roberts, while Justice O'Connor has been replaced by the extreme right-wing Samuel Alito. Counting the numbers, then, it's very clear that the constitutional protection of the essential human dignity of gay men and lesbians is hanging by a slender thread on the Supreme Court. John McCain has praised Justice Scalia and has also promised to put more justices like Roberts and Alito on the Court, which should be a consideration for any voter who cares about gay rights and the future of the Supreme Court.
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Lastly, and as icing on the cake, there is McCain’s position on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. The April, 2007, letter that McBush sent to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (a copy of a portion is set out below) said the1993 law, "unambiguously maintains that open homosexuality within the military services presents an intolerable risk to morale, cohesion and discipline.” The bottom line is that McCain is out of step with the direction of the country and/or a willing tool of the Talibangelicals (a great term a commentor used on Pam's House Blend). Here's the letter: