Tag: Gay marriage

Clarence Thomas Keeps the ‘Dis’ in ‘Dissenting’

Buck Banks

Slaves did not lose their dignity (any more than they lost their humanity) because the government allowed them to be enslaved. Those held in internment camps did not lose their dignity because the government confined them. And those denied governmental benefits certainly do not lose their dignity because the government denies them those benefits. The government cannot bestow dignity, and it cannot take it away.

— Justice Clarence Thomas, in his dissenting opinion on same-sex marriage.

Rubio Says Mainstream Christianity Is Threatened by Gay Marriage

Buck Banks

We are at the water’s edge of the argument that mainstream Christian teaching is hate speech, because today we’ve reached the point in our society where if you do not support same-sex marriage, you are labeled a homophobe and a hater. … So what’s the next step after that? After they’re done going after individuals, the next step is to argue that the teachings of mainstream Christianity, the catechism of the Catholic Church, is hate speech.

— Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), telling the Christian Broadcasting Network that Christianity faces a “real and present danger” from same-sex marriage supporters who cast opponents as intolerant.

Kasich OK with an Apparent Contradiction

Buck Banks

I don’t usually go to weddings of people that I don’t know, OK? I don’t go to ‘em. But if somebody that I like is getting married in the traditional sense or in the non-traditional sense, I’m not hung up about it and I’ll be celebrating with them at that point.

— Gov. John Kasich (R), quoted by the Wall Street Journal, declining to shed light on why he felt comfortable attending a gay wedding but was opposed to gay marriage.

Support for Gay Marriage Hits New High

Buck Banks

61%

Of Americans – more than six in 10 for the first time – say gays and lesbians should be allowed to marry legally,according to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, a week before a closely watched U.S. Supreme Court hearing on the issue. “Identical or similar majorities favor gay marriage on two key issues before the court: Sixty-one percent oppose allowing individual states to prohibit same-sex marriages. And 62 percent support requiring states to recognize gay marriages performed legally in other states.”

Sorry, Christians – Under Religious Freedom Laws, the Bible Also Requires You to Refuse Service to Adulterers

Jon Ponder

art-confederate-gay-marriedPublic outrage over the Religious Freedom Restoration Acts that have passed in 21 states, so far, appears to be the latest sign of a massive shift toward support for gay civil rights. It also suggests people looked past Republican rhetoric and saw these laws for what they’re really meant to be — licenses for right-wing Christians to discriminate against gays, particularly Christians in the wedding business who want to refuse to bake cakes and provide floral arrangements for same-sex weddings based on moral grounds.

It is not only petty to withhold wedding flowers and cakes from a particular class of sinners, it is also unlawful on its face. RFRAs not only violate public-accommodation laws and would arguably be unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause, their use of religion to single out a particular class of people runs afoul of the separation of church and state — the legal barrier that prevents our democratic republic from sliding into theocracy. It’s as un-American to discriminate against gays based on the Old Testament as it would be to restrict gay rights based on Sharia law, for example.

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