True Conservatives Support Marriage Equality

A little over a year ago in a VEER Magazine column (I write an monthly column on LGBT issues in the print edition) I wrote the following:

On May 20, 2011, the Gallup polling organization announced that for the first time a majority of Americans (53%) believed that same-sex marriage should be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages. Gallup noted that the increase in support since its 2010 poll derived exclusively among political independents and Democrats. Republicans' views did not change.  Five days later, on May 25, 2011, Gallup indicated that a subsequent poll found that 64% of Americans saying gay or lesbian relations between consenting adults should be legal, the highest ever.  The poll also found that 56% of respondents also considered gay or lesbian relations morally acceptable.

Despite these indications of surging support for recognition of committed same sex relationships, Republicans, those I describe as professional Christians – e.g., Maggie Gallagher of the National Organization for Marriage and William Donohue of the Catholic League, each of derive incomes well into the six figures pushing opposition to gay rights – and Southern Poverty Law Center registered hate groups such as Family Research Counsel continue to oppose any legal recognition of same sex relationships.  The irony is true conservatives ought to support civil law gay marriage.

Theodore B. Olson, former President George W. Bush’s Solicitor General, said:  “Many of my fellow conservatives have an almost knee-jerk hostility toward gay marriage. This does not make sense, because same-sex unions promote the values conservatives prize. . . . Marriage requires thinking beyond one's own needs. It transforms two individuals into a union based on shared aspirations, and in doing so establishes a formal investment in the well-being of society. The fact that individuals who happen to be gay want to share in this vital social institution is evidence that conservative ideals enjoy widespread acceptance. Conservatives should celebrate this, rather than lament it.” 

So why the continued opposition to same sex marriage and the recognition of same sex relationships?  I would suggest that a few words explain the phenomenon: "The South" and "Christianists."  The Republican Party is now a de facto religious party that is dominated by Christianists who have in the final analysis an utter contempt for the United States Constitution, particularly the First Amendment when applied to anyone but themselves.  These people are not conservative in the traditional sense but instead cling to ignorance, a fear of modernity and religious extremism.  The are the Christian equivalent of the Taliban and other anti-modernity Islamic extremists.  Andrew Sullivan notes that true conservatives in other nations with similarities to America but for the hold the Christianist hold over political discourse increasingly suppot marriage equality:

New Zealand's prime minister John Key joins David Cameron in endorsing the essentially conservative move of extending the responsibilities of civil marriage to gay couples. Britain's Tories, Canada's conservatives and New Zealand's National Party are now reconciled to marriage equality. Those countries are among the closest culturally to the US - but without the South.

Clearly, until the GOP throws off the strangle hold of the Christianists, support for marriage equality in the GOP will change very slowly.  Hate, ignorance, bigotry and an opposition to modernity are now the main attributes of the Republican Party.  All are view points that I find impossible to support.