I have long maintained that one of the primary goals of Christianists is to dehumanize LGBT Americans so that those who listen to their bigotry will find it easier to deprive us of civil rights or to even beat and kill us. It is pretty much the same prescription used by the Nazi regime under Hitler to make the implementation of his "Final Solution" more feasible and why so many Germans pretended to not know what was really being done to Europe's Jewish population. Maureen Dowd has a column in today's New York Times that looks at the unlikely alliance of Ted Olson and David Boises in seeking to over turn Proposition 8. She also quotes some of their remarks that definitely show the cold, un-Christian hearts of their opponents in the case. Olson definitely has seen our humanity and I believe that's what has truly moved him. We're not some "other," but rather living, breathing, feeling humans - just like everyone else. The more the trial highlights this fact and shows that our unions threaten no one, the harder it will be for an appellate court to reverse a winning verdict in the U.S. District Court. This case in many ways has put the U. S. Constitution ans America on trial. Here are some highlights:*
It has been quite a journey for Ted Olson. He’s gone from being the conservative lawyer who helped crown W. by winning the Bush v. Gore case before the Supreme Court, to being a lesbian. “Maureen,” he told me in his gravelly voice, “one of the biggest lesbian groups in this country told me I’m already an honorary lesbian.”
*
Olson reviewed the case: “We’re going to explain why allowing same-sex couples to have that same right that the rest of us have is not going to hurt heterosexual marriages. It [Proposition 8] has no point at all except some people don’t want to recognize gays and lesbians as normal, as human beings.”
*
Boies, wearing a flag pin on his lapel, said that the state of California is engaged in “gay bashing.” He spoke intensely about the gay and lesbian plaintiffs, who offered poignant testimony about their loving relationships and about wanting to be liked and accepted: “These people are people you would want your child to grow up and marry. You can be a child molester and get married. You can be a wife beater and get married. You can be a child-support scofflaw and get married. The importance of that emotional relationship is so vital to the pursuit of happiness that even prison felons, who aren’t really procreating, have a right to get married.”
*
Noting the rabid effort being made to restrict marriage to only those who can protect its sanctity, a chuckling Olson reeled off some names: “Tiger Woods, Eliot Spitzer, Mark Sanford, Kobe Bryant, Bill Clinton.”
*
I asked Olson if he misted up, as many in the courtroom did, when Jeff Zarrillo, a 36-year-old manager at AMC Entertainment, testified that he loved his partner “probably more than I love myself.” “Yes,” Olson replied, noting that he finds himself getting weepy a lot, including when a bright lawyer in his Washington law firm approached him in the library to tell him she was a lesbian mother of two and she was grateful to him.
*
“I think there’s something the matter with you if you don’t care enough to feel the suffering that they’ve been through and if you’re not emotionally upset about the fact that we’re doing an immense amount of harm to people,” he said. “We’re not treating them like Americans. We’re not treating them like citizens.”
*
Obama sees himself as such a huge change that he can be cautious about other societal changes. But what he doesn’t realize is that legalizing gay marriage is like electing a black president. Before you do it, it seems inconceivable. Once it’s done, you can’t remember what all the fuss was about.
*
I very much agree - there IS something wrong with those who strive to deny us our humanity. And a religion that promotes such hatred and mistreatment of others is not a social good. Rather, it is what threatens the country - not me having a committed, loving relationship with the boyfriend.
It has been quite a journey for Ted Olson. He’s gone from being the conservative lawyer who helped crown W. by winning the Bush v. Gore case before the Supreme Court, to being a lesbian. “Maureen,” he told me in his gravelly voice, “one of the biggest lesbian groups in this country told me I’m already an honorary lesbian.”
*
Olson reviewed the case: “We’re going to explain why allowing same-sex couples to have that same right that the rest of us have is not going to hurt heterosexual marriages. It [Proposition 8] has no point at all except some people don’t want to recognize gays and lesbians as normal, as human beings.”
*
Boies, wearing a flag pin on his lapel, said that the state of California is engaged in “gay bashing.” He spoke intensely about the gay and lesbian plaintiffs, who offered poignant testimony about their loving relationships and about wanting to be liked and accepted: “These people are people you would want your child to grow up and marry. You can be a child molester and get married. You can be a wife beater and get married. You can be a child-support scofflaw and get married. The importance of that emotional relationship is so vital to the pursuit of happiness that even prison felons, who aren’t really procreating, have a right to get married.”
*
Noting the rabid effort being made to restrict marriage to only those who can protect its sanctity, a chuckling Olson reeled off some names: “Tiger Woods, Eliot Spitzer, Mark Sanford, Kobe Bryant, Bill Clinton.”
*
I asked Olson if he misted up, as many in the courtroom did, when Jeff Zarrillo, a 36-year-old manager at AMC Entertainment, testified that he loved his partner “probably more than I love myself.” “Yes,” Olson replied, noting that he finds himself getting weepy a lot, including when a bright lawyer in his Washington law firm approached him in the library to tell him she was a lesbian mother of two and she was grateful to him.
*
“I think there’s something the matter with you if you don’t care enough to feel the suffering that they’ve been through and if you’re not emotionally upset about the fact that we’re doing an immense amount of harm to people,” he said. “We’re not treating them like Americans. We’re not treating them like citizens.”
*
Obama sees himself as such a huge change that he can be cautious about other societal changes. But what he doesn’t realize is that legalizing gay marriage is like electing a black president. Before you do it, it seems inconceivable. Once it’s done, you can’t remember what all the fuss was about.
*
I very much agree - there IS something wrong with those who strive to deny us our humanity. And a religion that promotes such hatred and mistreatment of others is not a social good. Rather, it is what threatens the country - not me having a committed, loving relationship with the boyfriend.
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