The Canary is Turning Blue!
It’s true that gay marriage is not the number one problem facing the country today – plummeting stock markets, joblessness, and widening chasms between rich and poor are all threats to citizens, straight or gay.
What most of these victims of joblessness and high taxes have in common is that they are all considered valid citizens with the same civil rights. Unless they’re GLBT. For them, civil rights aren’t equal–or existent. Maintaining this inequality is a high priority for two of 2012’s presidential candidates, Texas Governor Rick Perry and our own Michele Bachmann.
An August 4 dialogue between Meet the Press moderator David Gregory and Bachmann:
GREGORY: Can a gay couple who adopt children, in your mind, be considered a “family?”
BACHMANN: When it comes to marriage, and family, my opinion is that marriage is between a man and a woman. And I think that’s been my view —
GREGORY: So a gay couple with kids would not be considered a “family” to you?
BACHMANN: You know, all of these kind (sic) of questions really aren’t about what people are concerned about right now.
Not all people, certainly, but that 5-10% of the population whose families have just been nullified by a presidential contender need to sit up and take notice.
There is, of course, no same sex marriage in Texas, but in 2009, Perry did inadvertently sign legislation allowing transgender couples to tie the knot. He is working vigorously to have that law removed and to become a candidate who will not only not give equal rights to GLBT individuals, but who intends to rescind those already given. Should he be successful, two years of legitimate transgender weddings will be annulled.
Something in both Perry’s and Bachmann’s performances remind me of photographs I’ve seen recently of Anders Behring Brevik. The Norwegian mass killer’s blue eyes are untroubled, his smooth face seamless, wrapped in impervious self-righteousness.
He may be insane, but he is also the epitome of all ideologues: My vision is the Truth and may be implemented at any cost. God’s special endorsement allows the chosen to define marriage or family and to render null and void any outsiders.
Thus the issue of gay marriage and gay families has a wider application–a canary in the mine that lets us know the air is clean and our thinking clear. Keep your eye on the bird in 2012.
