So the good news that not every Republican is an idiot on the issue of marriage equality:
The [Massachusetts] Republican establishment is throwing its support behind a US Supreme Court fight against bans on same-sex marriage, led by Governor Charlie Baker, the nation’s only sitting governor to sign on to the GOP brief.
Joining Baker, organizers of the effort said, are Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito, former governor William F. Weld, former acting governor Jane Swift, along with Republican National Committeeman Ron Kaufman and Beth Myers, two longtime advisers to 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney, himself an opponent of gay marriage.
The amicus brief, to be submitted to the high court on Friday, challenges individual states’ prohibitions against same-sex marriage on the grounds of the 14th Amendment, the Reconstruction Era measure drafted to provide “equal protection.”
That three of the state’s four living Republican governors have joined a Supreme Court battle in favor of gay marriage underscores how much the issue’s partisan divisiveness, still pervasive in other parts of the country, has dissipated in Massachusetts, the first state to ratify the practice.
Of course, while some Republicans understand that equality is the ultimate value, others still don’t…or won’t…or can’t get it. The latest example: Ben Carson, who apparently wants to play to the same folks who fell in love with Alan Keyes and Herman Cain in previous GOP presidential contests. Carson made an even bigger fool of himself than before when he asserted that homosexuality is optional, a remark that he kinda-sorta backtracked from:
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson apologized for commenting Wednesday that prisoners’ changes after they leave jail proves being gay is a choice, but said that the science is still murky on the issue.
And then, in a radio appearance later Wednesday, he criticized CNN for airing the comments he’d made in an interview and said he won’t be addressing gay rights issues for the duration of his presidential campaign.
Carson had asserted Wednesday morning on CNN’s “New Day” that homosexuality is a choice because people “go into prison straight — and when they come out, they’re gay.”
He backtracked in a statement afterward, saying he “realized that my choice of language does not reflect fully my heart on gay issues.”
“I do not pretend to know how every individual came to their sexual orientation. I regret that my words to express that concept were hurtful and divisive. For that I apologize unreservedly to all that were offended,” he added.
I fear that in our celebration of the advancement of LGBT rights, we forget just how many people in this country refuse to budge on this issue, and simply become more hateful over time. Christian fundamentalists really do believe that homosexuality is optional. It’s a deranged belief, which is why Christian fundamentalism has to be politically and culturally destroyed in this country. The enemy known as homophobia has not yet been crushed–and it has to be crushed if we are to have equal justice under law.
Carson claims he’s not going to talk about gay rights anymore, but that’s an obvious lie. He will surely keep on bashing gays in order to play to his crackpot cronies. These guys don’t change. They never do. Their hatred will accompany them to their graves.
UPDATE: I have to admit, Dan Savage may be on to something with his challenge to Carson....
