Thursday, May 28, 2009

A Surprise Indeed

Whilst checking out waynebesen.com, I found the following URL;


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carlos-watson/how-the-prop-8-ruling-wil_b_208095.html

More complete story here:

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/bush-solicitor-general-ted-olson.html

In short, it seems that Ted Olson, former Solicitor General during the Bush Administration is going to bring a suit against Prop. H8. This is welcome news indeed. Why? Because it means that more moderate people may be starting to take back the Republican Party from the religious fanatics. Those like Olson and Steve Schmidt, former McCain strategist who are in favour of marriage equality have come to see that the way of hate and fear espoused by so many in the Religious Right is wrong. It is wrong politically and has cost them big, More importantly, it is wrong morally. If hardcore Republicans have come to realise this then there may be some hope for the Republicans and the Log Cabin Republicans.

The shame in this is that I have yet to hear President Obama say Word One in the wake of the California Supreme Court decision the day before yesterday. His silence is deafening. He promised change yet has not lifted a finger on our behalf. This in and of itself speaks volumes about his personal commitment to change and what it says is that there is a possibility of change for everyone except the GLBTQ community.

Many in the gay community mistrust both Mr. Olsen and his real intentions in bringing this suit. I can understand that. The Republicans have historically been no allies of the GLBTQ community. Mistrust is perfectly understandable under the circumstances. However, I will take a wait-and-see attitude. It is entirely possible that Mr. Olsen has experienced a change of heart and if so, that change will bear fruit.

I believe that sooner or later, the Supreme Court of the United States will have to rule on marriage equality. The religious right will fight this until the government lets them know once and for all that equality is for ALL Americans, regardless of race, religion, physical disability, or sexual orientation. You may believe as you wish, but you do not have the right to force others to live according to those beliefs. It happened in the case of the African-American community (remember, many bigots felt they had the Bible on their side in maintaining segregation and bigotry. The Supreme Court finally put paid to that particular element.

It would indeed be a great irony if marriage equality were to come about at the hands of Republicans--avowed conservatives. In this case, if successful, they would be following in the footsteps of our Founding Fathers by extending the actual rights (as opposed to just words on a piece of paper) of "life, liberty, and the persuit of happiness" to all Americans.

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