by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ali Frick, and Ryan Powers
Right-Wing H8
On Nov. 4, Californians approved Prop. 8, amending
the state
constitution to "eliminate
the right of same-sex couples to
marry in California." "Responding
to pleas for legal clarity from those on both sides of the
issue," the California Supreme Court said yesterday that it would take
up the case of whether
Prop. 8 was
constitutional. The court
accepted three lawsuits seeking to nullify the initiative, which
all claim the Prop. 8 "abridges the civil rights of a vulnerable
minority group. They argue that
voters alone did not have the authority to enact such a significant
constitutional change," according to the AP. The court battle is only
one part of the ongoing struggle for LGBT rights. Since Nov. 4,
same-sex marriage proponents have swept
the country in protests
and demonstrations against Prop.
8. At the same time, the right wing has escalated its
rhetoric, downplaying the importance of
gay rights and hyperventilating over a few instances of
violence that have resulted from
anti-Prop 8. protests.
'GAY
AND SECULAR FASCISM':
Since Nov. 4, same-sex marriage proponents have taken to the streets in
dozens
of peaceful demonstrations. LGBT
rights advocates have turned out
in at least eight
countries, 50 states, and 300 cities in
support
of marriage equality. Thousands
have gathered
across California
to protest Prop. 8. As the Dallas Morning
News noted in an editorial yesterday, "The protests, which have gone
beyond California, have
been largely peaceful." Yet
the right wing is blowing the scale of the protests out of proportion.
On his Nov. 14
show, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly tried to define the entire anti-Prop. 8
movement by a few protests. "In the last three or four days,
really nasty stuff.
... We had a
church in Michigan invaded by gay
activists. ... We
had a guy in Sacramento fired from his job," he said. Former House
Speaker Newt Gingrich responded: "Look, I think there is a gay
and secular fascism in this
country that wants impose its will on
the
rest of us. It is prepared to use violence, to use harassment."
THE VIOLENCE THRESHOLD:
On ABC's "The View" on Tuesday, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee
suggested that, compared to the push for civil rights in the 60s, the
gay rights movement hasn't
suffered enough violence to be a
real issue. "But here is the
difference. Bull Connor was hosing people down
in the streets of Alabama. John Lewis got his skull cracked on the
Selma bridge," he said. Similarly,
the Family Research Council's Tony
Perkins claimed that gay rights and civil rights are "totally
different." Tara Wall of the
Washington Times wrote Tuesday that "there
is no comparison"
between the two rights movements because "blacks
were stoned, hung, and dragged for their constitutional right to 'sit
at the table.'" But gay people have suffered serious violence. Roughly 16.6
percent of all
hate crimes reported by the FBI
in 2007 "resulted from
sexual-orientation bias." A 2007 University of California-Davis study
found that nearly
four in 10 gay men and about one in eight lesbians
and bisexuals "have been the target of violence or
a property crime
because of their sexual orientation." The
violence that LGBT activists face will gain more attention in the
upcoming, when "Milk," a film
about the first openly gay elected official, is released. Harvey
Milk, a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, was
ultimately killed for his
struggle for political equality.
'DID
NOT PROHIBIT' SAME-SEX MARRIAGE:
Interviewed on the Bill Bennett show yesterday, Huckabee claimed that
in
approving Prop. 8, California did
not "ban" marriage
equality, but affirmed marriage as
between a man and woman. "I refuse
to use the term, 'ban same-sex marriage.' That's not
what those efforts did. They affirmed what is. They did not prohibit
something," he
said. As the California ballot read,
however, Prop. 8 "eliminates
the right of same-sex couples to
marry." In fact, since June, 18,000
gay couples have wed. But
under Prop. 8, same-sex couples lose this right. Keeping with their
efforts
to downplay the importance of gay rights, conservatives have been
attempting to claim gay marriage is different than interracial
marriage. "You try to compare this to interracial
marriage. It is not the same
thing," said Tony Perkins on Nov. 12. But as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
(R) noted, "It's the same as...when blacks and whites were not
allowed to marry. This
falls into the same category."
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"Amid another huge increase in U.S. jobless claims," the White House has changed its position and agreed to suppport an extension of unemployment benefits.
THINK
PROGRESS: Weekly Standard editor
Bill Kristol: Americans have seen "plenty of coffins"
from the Iraq war.
WONK
ROOM: Former senator Tom
Daschle's views on health reform: "Incremental change in our system is
no longer a viable option."
BRENDAN
NYHAN: The New York Times's Matt
Bai is wrong to say that "the
American public doesn't seem to move very much in its basic attitudes
about government."
NEWSHOUNDS:
Fox News' Bill O'Reilly surrenders to the War on Christmas and touts
his "holiday reading list."
WASHINGTON:
Projected budget deficit swells to $5.1 billion, nearly $2 billion more
than predicted.
TEXAS:
State Board of Education members hear from Texans "trying to influence
the panel on how evolution should be covered in science classes."
FLORIDA:
"Bowing to the pleas of Florida's cash-starved state universities, Gov.
Charlie Crist will announce a plan today to allow all 11 schools to
raise tuition up to 15 percent a year."
"Ted Stevens, the 40-year
incumbent in Alaska, recently
convicted of seven counts of something-or-other, hangs on in Alaska."
-- Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, 11/04/08,
predicting the ultimate outcome in Alaska's U.S. Senate race
VERSUS
"Tuesday
the Associated Press declared Mayor Mark
Begich the winner in the U.S. Senate race between Begich and Senator
Ted Stevens."
-- Associated Press, 11/18/08
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