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| The Lunacy, The Idiocy, The Fallacy: Santorum, Creighton and Corbett |
One of the weapons that the ‘other side’ of the marriage
equality fight uses when they’re backed up against the wall is to compare the
idea of allowing same-sex couples the right to marry being equal to any number
of horrific or idiotic unions.
The idiotic is almost funny, like when, during his 2012
presidential campaign, Rick Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, likened
marriage equality to a napkin, not a paper towel; water, not beer; tea, not basketball; a tree, not a car.
Huh? But Santorum is from Pennsylvania, and it’s
in Pennsylvania that the latest fight for marriage equality is heating up, so
the politicos up that way are crawling from the woodwork to say derogatory
thing about two men, or two women, wanting to be married to one another.
Tom Creighton, a Lehigh County Commissioner, compares the
marriage equality battle to forcing the government to subsidize people’s pets:
“The state has a ban on same-sex marriage, so why should the county be offering benefits for same-sex marriage? I don’t feel the county should be looking for new ways to give away taxpayer money. Next it could be giving money out to people’s pets or whatever. No, it probably won’t go that far.”
It sounds like, right there at the end of his ludicrous
statement, he realized how stupid he was because he backtracked off the
remarks; but the remarks are still out there, and will still be incorporated
into the fight.
No Marriage Equality! No Obamacare For Cats!
Creighton made his
remarks to promote his amendment to the Lehigh County budget, which would deny
benefits to the same-sex partners of county employees “whose marriage is
recognized in another state.”
This, um, yeah, is why we need a federal marriage equality
law, so these little pockets of bigotry can join the rest of us in the 21st
century.
But, while Rick Santorum’s statements are idiotic — which is
true of all Santorum statements — and Creighton’s statement is ludicrous, there
are also other points-of-view that are downright damming, and dangerous, especially
when coming from someone higher up the government.
Last August, Pennsylvania Governor, Tom
Corbett, who enlisted the state’s attorney’s to fight against marriage equality
sat back while the attorneys called allowing gay and
lesbian couples the right to marry as being equal to allowing children the
right to marry, as neither may legally do so in Pennsylvania.
He tried to backtrack, but even while
doing so he stepped in it further, and deeper. This week Corbett, when asked
about that statement, called it “inappropriate,” but then said "a much
better analogy would have been brother and sister." Yes, allowing committed
same-sex couples the right to marry is the same as allowing brothers and
sisters to marry.
And that’s the fight we’re up against. But Corbett, facing low approval ratings
and a reelection campaign, sought to distance himself from his double dose of lunacy,
and issued a non-apology apology:
"I explained that current Pennsylvania statute delineates categories of individuals unable to obtain a marriage license. As an example, I cited siblings as one such category, which is clearly defined in state law. My intent was to provide an example of these categories. My words were not intended to offend anyone. If they did, I apologize."
He didn’t mean
to offend anyone when he said, let’s say, if Bob and Carlos can marry, then why
can’t Bob and his sister marry? He meant no offense, and IF you were offended then he’s sorry.
Openly gay
Pennsylvania Representative, Brian Sims, though isn’t accepting the apology,
writing on his Facebook page:
“All day long I've been hearing about the Governor's comments earlier this morning comparing marriage equality to incest. In truth, I'm not giving him or his comments all that much thought and I encourage you to do the same.
No one, not even his own party, would argue that he’s an intellectual heavyweight or even a particularly thoughtful person. The larger issue is that despite the fact that the majority of Pennsylvanians disagree with him, he continues to be the heaviest hitter in Pennsylvania’s anti-equality crusade.
Our job isn’t just to be frustrated with the homophobia coming from the Governor’s Mansion, it’s to do everything we can to ensure that his chapter in Pennsylvania’s political history is as sad and short as his record on schools, economic development and civil rights.
Tom Corbett has been a disaster for Pennsylvania for so many reasons and I hope this fuels your resolve to vote him out of office.”
And that advice is how we rid our
political offices from the Neanderthals who think marriage equality is like a napkin,
but not a paper towel, or forcing government to care for our pets, or allowing
children, or siblings, to marry.
Find the officeholders who are against marriage
equality and simple vote them out.
