Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The GOP Jihad Against LGBT Citizens

Some days the viciousness of the GOP is truly stomach wrenching. A case in point, Wisconsin's GOP governor, Scott Walker, who apparently believes that same sex life partners are not entitled to something as simple as the right of hospital visitation. Naturally, Walker is being cheered on by the hate filled Christofascists at Wisconsin Family Action who strive daily to make LGBT citizens less than human under the law. It's part and parcel with the opposition these falsely pious and self-congratulatory monsters mount whenever and wherever efforts are made to enact anti-bullying laws that could save lives and end the deliberate torment of other human beings. Both the GOP and Christianity have become something foul and ugly at the hands of people like Walker. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has coverage on Walker's move to cease defending Wisconsin's domestic partnership registry law. Here are some highlights:
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Madison - Gov. Scott Walker believes a new law that gives gay couples hospital visitation rights violates the state constitution and has asked a judge to allow the state to stop defending it.
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Democrats who controlled the Legislature in 2009 changed the law so that same-sex couples could sign up for domestic partnership registries with county clerks to secure some - but not all - of the rights afforded married couples.
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Wisconsin Family Action sued last year in Dane County circuit court, arguing that the registries violated a 2006 amendment to the state constitution that bans gay marriage and any arrangement that is substantially similar.
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Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen refused to defend the lawsuit, saying he agreed the new law violated the state constitution. Then-Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat, hired Madison attorney Lester Pines to defend the state. Walker, a Republican, replaced Doyle in January and fired Pines in March. On Friday, Walker filed a motion to stop defending the case.
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In 2006, 60% of state voters signed off on changing the constitution to ban gay marriage and a "legal status identical or substantially similar to marriage" for same-sex couples.
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Wisconsin Family Action advocated for the amendment. The group first sued the state over the same-sex registries shortly after they were created in 2009, taking its case directly to the state Supreme Court in hopes of getting a quick verdict. The high court declined to hear the case, and the group then filed a lawsuit last year in Dane County circuit court.
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Once again, I cannot help but believe that the world would be a far better place if Christianity - or at least the Christofascist version - were a dead religion. If there is a God, I suspect many of the reserved seats in Hell will be for the Christianists and not the gays.

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