shocking news: brownback against gay marriage
According to Hotline, the first national politician to speak out against today's ruling in New Jersey mandating civil unions was our own Sam Brownback:
Brownback's logic (the logic of many right wing opponents of gay marriage) would apply with equal force to Brown: it mandated a huge social change in a most undemocratic fashion. At the time it was decided, the country was most certainly not ready for desegregated schools (or the more sweeping desegregation that followed). The people had spoken through their elected representatives, in Kansas and elsewhere, and shown their support (or at least toleration) of segregation.
But the New Jersey decision, like Brown, demonstrates exactly what the courts are supposed to do in these situations: protect the rights of minorities who can't protect themselves through the political process (what with the majoritarian politics and all). In the 50s and 60s, those damn activist judges dragged the country kicking and screaming toward greater equality. Despite dire warnings from Brownback's ideological predecessors, we emerged with our democracy intact, and with greater respect for human rights to boot. Today, the courts, precisely because of their insulation from democratic politics, are the only people in power willing to state the obvious: there is no reason to deny civil unions other than irrational prejudice towards gay and lesbian people.
In the long run, the Brownbacks of the world never win--each generation gets a little more tolerant than the last (try asking a room full of today's high school students how much they worry about preserving the sanctity of traditional marriage). Despite the gay marriage amendments and the shrieking indignation of the religious right, acceptance of gay people and culture has never been higher.
History will judge Sam Brownback harshly, just as it judged men like George Wallace and Bull Conner: demagogues who stood in the way of much-needed progress.
"The decision of the New Jersey Supreme Court only deepens the constitutional crisis with respect to the protection of traditional marriage, and warrants swift, decisive action by Congress in the form of passage of the Marriage Protection Amendment. Huge social changes should be decided by the people and their elected representatives and should not be forced by the courts.”Yes, Sam, "huge social changes." Kind of like the one that started in Kansas in 1954? You know, Brown v. Board of Education?
Brownback's logic (the logic of many right wing opponents of gay marriage) would apply with equal force to Brown: it mandated a huge social change in a most undemocratic fashion. At the time it was decided, the country was most certainly not ready for desegregated schools (or the more sweeping desegregation that followed). The people had spoken through their elected representatives, in Kansas and elsewhere, and shown their support (or at least toleration) of segregation.
But the New Jersey decision, like Brown, demonstrates exactly what the courts are supposed to do in these situations: protect the rights of minorities who can't protect themselves through the political process (what with the majoritarian politics and all). In the 50s and 60s, those damn activist judges dragged the country kicking and screaming toward greater equality. Despite dire warnings from Brownback's ideological predecessors, we emerged with our democracy intact, and with greater respect for human rights to boot. Today, the courts, precisely because of their insulation from democratic politics, are the only people in power willing to state the obvious: there is no reason to deny civil unions other than irrational prejudice towards gay and lesbian people.
In the long run, the Brownbacks of the world never win--each generation gets a little more tolerant than the last (try asking a room full of today's high school students how much they worry about preserving the sanctity of traditional marriage). Despite the gay marriage amendments and the shrieking indignation of the religious right, acceptance of gay people and culture has never been higher.
History will judge Sam Brownback harshly, just as it judged men like George Wallace and Bull Conner: demagogues who stood in the way of much-needed progress.
posted by siege @ 10:03 PM
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