The Hypocrisy Hall of Fame: Schwarzenegger and Marriage Equality

Arnold Schwarzenegger's long list of past indiscretions -- including the recent revelation that he fathered a child with a member of his household staff -- shouldn't be any of our business. As long as he didn't break the law, nobody beyond his immediate family should be concerned with his private affairs. But is it too much to ask that Schwarzenegger, and other politicians who have found themselves caught up in messy family situations, extend to all Americans what they say they want for themselves: to not have others meddle in their private lives?

I am still angry at Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not because he hid a personal secret from the public and from his own family, but because he did so while working to deny thousands of California citizens the right to have legal families at all.

Sure, Schwarzenegger was not one of those politicians who regularly use inflammatory anti-gay rhetoric, but nobody in state office has done more to hold back marriage equality for more people. Despite Schwarzenegger's often gay-friendly tone, he is the only governor ever to have vetoed marriage equality legislation twice...twice! Now, Schwarzenegger wants to be known for his refusal to defend the discriminatory Proposition 8 in court. But while he was in office, he had the chance to do the right thing and failed...twice. This is what Americans should remember about Schwarzenegger's gay rights record. A friendly tone doesn't mean a thing when it's paired with hateful policies.

Schwarzenegger, despite his purported unwillingness to join the ranks of the fire breathing gay-bashing Right, has placed himself with the likes of John Ensign and Newt Gingrich on the long and growing list of GOP officials who accused gay people of ruining the institution of marriage while they themselves flouted their wedding vows.

No politician, however squeaky clean his or her personal record is, should be in the business of telling grown adults who they can love and marry, or demonizing people who are trying to achieve the financial and emotional security of marriage. But the people who make my blood boil are those who accuse gay people of harming the institutions of marriage and the family while causing real harm to their own marriages and families. These men expose the real hypocrisy behind efforts to stop gay equality. They insist that family is a personal matter and beg for privacy in their personal affairs. We should all expect -- no, demand -- that they extend that belief to their public policy when and where it really matters.

 

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Comments

[TheOin2012]

02:27 AM on 05/25/2011

Actually, Schwarzenegger pointed out that the people of California had voted against gay marriage.

He campaigned against Prop 8.

He blocked the state, as the governor of California, from appealing Prop 8.

That was after the state Supreme Court, with the justice he appointed voting for gay marriage, briefly made it legal.

The only public votes in California have been against gay marriage.

>Sure, Schwarzenegger was not one of those politicians who regularly use inflammatory anti-gay rhetoric, but nobody in state office has done more to hold back marriage equality for more people

[Philclock]

12:35 PM on 05/23/2011

DISAGREE WITH THE PREMESIS!

There's NOTHING "illegal" about same-sex marriage; it simply is NOT a license issued by the state, nor should it be. Go get civil unions, married in the church of your choice, whatever; the state's job is promote the nuclear family for its foundation, prosperity and longevity; not social engineering and experimentation.

[Atwill]

12:11 PM on 05/23/2011

It might be legals for him to father a child out of wedlock, but it is not legal for him to break our state worker's contracts and cut our pay by 15%. That was illegal and he needs to pay all of us furloughed state workers back the 15% he stole from us.

[zekleslikpaw]

06:58 PM on 05/22/2011

I hope Arnold reads this article and comments. He broke his constitutional duty to defend the law of the land in courts and this is what he gets in return.

[EmmaDarian]

07:07 PM on 05/22/2011

Exactly what is the "this" you are blaming on something other than his own adulterous actions?

[kiksadi50]

04:20 PM on 05/22/2011

This is a very good point.Conservative fundamentalist right wingers yammer on about traditional marriages and then schwarz.disloses his secret life that he has been lying about for 10yrs. and the public is barely reacting. in fact, the woman has been criticized more than schwarz.White, male,rich,famous men get away with murder (literally) in this country.

[Parade Keegan]

07:19 PM on 05/22/2011

I hate stories like the Arnold Maria story. I never "man bash" because all men are not the same. I've had a couple of bad experiences in my life so I'm not naive. Not all men are like Arnold and DSK and not all women are apologists for men like them. I also know we the public only hear about men who are celebrities or in the public eye. I know lots of men as friends and colleagues and they're fabulous! They would never be like these characterless boobs. Some of the men I know are extremely wealthy some are not but they all have and keep high standards for themselves. The only constant that they all have in common beside high moral standards and good character is NONE of them is religious.

[Wonder Woman2]

03:00 PM on 05/22/2011

The only threat to Arnold's marriage turned out to be him.

[Parade Keegan]

07:26 PM on 05/22/2011

I'm wondering why an seemingly intelligent woman who believes in the empowerment of women would be an apologist for man who would be accused by 16 different women of sexual harassment? This indirectly calls these women liars. Empowerment? Hmmmm. The history of a person does predict the future. What was wrong with Maria for oh so many years? Frankly I'm not surprised at how her "marriage" flamed out, nor should she.

[umbriago]

01:30 PM on 05/22/2011

Whenever I hear a Republican fear monger call (as Rick Santorum does) gay marriage a threat to all marriages, I want to know, how? How is it a threat? Can anyone name one single instance where two gay people who married each other threatened straight marriage?

Would someone actually get divorced or call off a wedding because a gay couple got married?

Where is the logic in this thinking?

[Msquad99]

04:50 PM on 05/22/2011

That is the point. There is no logic to that line of thinking. But it plays well with a significantly large number of people. And that says a great deal more about people's thinking and beliefs than it does about the true sanctity of the institution of marriage.

[pynecastle]

09:13 PM on 05/22/2011

Hey Rick,
If you think that marrying another man would threaten the institution of marriage, don't marry one.

[mkelch]

12:29 PM on 05/22/2011

The christian-right is a threat to religion. It makes more sense to me that gays being a threat to marriage.

[Robin Thompson Duehring]

11:31 AM on 05/22/2011

Yet another republican who commands us to do what I say and not what I do. Though there are many Democrats involved in sex scandals as well, the republicans take the gold in this category. Just Google "republicans involved in more sex scandals than democrats". It's become outrageously ridiculous - the party of "family values" is anything but.

[LeftoftheLeft]

11:04 AM on 05/22/2011

Hypocrisy is what the repubs are best at - even the moderate ones like Schwarzenegger (and Obama) who are against gay marriage for reasons which they cannot explain.

[TheOin2012]

02:29 AM on 05/25/2011

Obama's a Republican now?!

Wow, HP is really the haven for Obama-bashers, ain't it??

[SaddieMcCall]

10:41 AM on 05/22/2011

I'm not so sure he hasn't broken any laws. He has been accused of sexually harassing women on the job for many years. The woman he had a child with was his housekeeper, who continued to work as his housekeeper for more than a decade after their child was born. It doesn't seem like an equal relationship to me, even if she never spoke out about it. We don't know much about how their "relationship" began, but many people adapt to the situation they are in, just to survive.

America has a history of slave masters raping their slaves and siring children with them. The slave remains a slave, and the children by these women are not given equal status to the children he sired with his wife.

More than anything, its his crude comments and inappropriate breast and buttocks squeezing that he feels entitled to do with women that bothers me the most. I have been on the receiving end of this type of behavior by other men, and it's not cute, funny or manly.

[Milrepa]

10:16 AM on 05/22/2011

Two wrongs doesn't make a right.

[herewegoagain2]

03:14 PM on 05/22/2011

But three lefts do make a right

[pynecastle]

09:14 PM on 05/22/2011

...and two wrongs just might make a right(winger).

[LeftLeanWing]

01:06 AM on 05/22/2011

I think the biggest insult is

that since he had two children born within a week of each other....
        He was doing both his wife and the mistress at the same time.....

[confuseddemocrat]

10:40 PM on 05/22/2011

what people are missing is that he was having unprotected sex. Thus he was reckless...he could have damaged  his wife and her child's health with his "excursions"

[Bobolini]

02:21 AM on 05/20/2011

Well put. I am not that sophisticated, but I could never figure out the thing about gay people being a threat to "the family". No matter how I roll it around in my not very sophisticated mind, I can't put the argument together - Is it that men and women who are heterosexual will somehow stop being heterosexual when they pass the law legalizing gay marriage?

I grew up in a culture where there were gay people and gay families and they really did not have any affect on anybody's marriage. I knew of some heterosexual people who ruined marriages, but never heard of anyone's mate running away with a married gay couple?! People make the silliest assumptions and then stick with them no matter what.

[EmmaDarian]

01:18 PM on 05/22/2011

Yes, they do. Even after seven years of marriage equality, Massachusetts still has the lowest divorce rate in the US (unlike the red states in the south that have the highest). Reality shows that same- sex couples marrying has had no negative effect on marriage.

[Bernie Keating]

10:27 AM on 05/19/2011

Superb article. If my marriage is Schwarzenegger's business, then his marriage is my business.