3.03.2005
It's the Charter, stupid
That’s the slogan Young Liberals are using to promote marriage equality in Canada, and needless to say, the fundies are up in arms:
“It's the Charter, stupid,” is the slogan coined by the Young Liberals that has riled some same-sex “marriage” opponents, such as Defend Marriage Canada founder Charles McVety. “They have resorted to name-calling,” McVety said, as reported by the Globe and Mail news. “They are calling people who don't agree with them stupid.”
I think Mr. McVety as a point here. As satisfying as it is for those of us on the left to paint our political opponents as knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers, it really does us a disservice. I’m sure there are quite a few on the Defend Marriage side who are good people, and truly believe that marriage is a religious institution, and therefore, should be governed by religious rules. I don’t begrudge these people their right to their beliefs, however, I think the Young Liberals have an equally important point: the Canadian Charter prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and so long as secular marriage exists, there is no legal justification for denying marriage equality.
But what I find appalling is Mr. McVety’s state of shock about “calling people who don’t agree with them stupid.” After all, I seriously doubt Mr. McVety had anything to say about these gems:
- Alan Keyes: “Hitler and his supporters were Satanists and homosexuals. That's just a true statement…The notion that is involved in homosexuality, the unbridled sort of satisfaction of human passions [leads to] totalitarianism, Nazism, and communism.”
- Rick Santorum: "If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything…That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be."
- Michael Savage: “Oh, you're one of the sodomites. You should only get AIDS and die, you pig. How's that? Why don't you see if you can sue me, you pig. You got nothing better than to put me down, you piece of garbage. You have got nothing to do today, go eat a sausage and choke on it."
- John Cornyn: “It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries a box turtle. But that does not mean it is right. . . . Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife."
So, you’re right, Mr. McVety, we should not stand for such horrible slanders as “stupid” being thrown at such wonderful people as those who would call my friends and family Nazis and sexual deviants while praying that they get AIDS and die. After all, I would hate to stoop to their level.
Labels: Fundies Say The Darndest Things, LGBT
annamaria at 10:48 AM
