In 2004 as George W. Bush's catastrophic Iraq grew increasingly tragic for America, the Republican Party pointed its crooked crosshairs toward homosexual Americans. Our nation -- beleaguered, undereducated, and fundamentalist bought the rhetoric. In a sweeping campaign, America's government defined its enemy as our own homosexual brother and sisters.
In an unprecedented move to limit rights to American citizens, President Bush proclaimed his infamous Constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage. With Bush in power, America at war in Iraq, and the homosexuals to fault for God's seeming indifference, the three tenets of Adolf Hitler's Germany are alive and well in the White House: Give the people a leader to follow, something to do, and someone to blame. It's a dark hour for America, on par with Japanese Interment camps, the infamous "separate but equal" of Plessy v. Ferguson, and the denial of women's basic rights. The blood on Bush's hands isn't just from Iraq; it is from every American who had ever died or suffered for freedom's blind ideals.
In spite of pounding rhetoric from the right and the influence of relentless TV zealots, four California justices with true grit have kept America's fundamental convictions alive by affirming the right for same-sex couples to legally marry. With the ideals of our founding fathers in the balance, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Vermont have stood up for fair-minded American morality, while shunning the immoral, frightened, Neanderthal right-wing minority.
Within two weeks same-sex marriages will be a reality in California. Cowering California citizens are relying on another ballot initiative to stop the hard-fought equality. In a public statement on April 11, 2008, Governor Schwarzenegger stated that an initiative to amend the California Constitution to ban gay and lesbian couples from marriage was "a waste of time," adding "I will always be there to fight against that. It will never happen."
Congressman Barney Frank (D. Mass) sat down with me this week. In this excerpt he told about his New York Times quip about his fitness to judge the "Miss America" contest, the acrid tongue of Dick Armey, and how time will prove that equality for all is a step toward a stronger America