Chasingmoksha wrote a pointed statement concerning my last post on the Gay Marriage Amendment in which she said: "I do not see what is the big deal with two people of the same biological sex getting married." She goes on to later say that she does know what the big deal is, but she got me thinking (not always a good thing).
I remembered an article I read by Ann Woolner for Bloomberg.Com titled "Ghost of George Wallace Haunts Gay Marriage Debate." It fingered the "big deal" concerning gay marriage as no article I've ever read has done. I'd like to share some it with you here:
Alabama voters taught a racial moderate named George Wallace a lesson in 1958 when they rejected him for governor and elected instead an unambiguous race-baiter. "I was out-niggered,'' Wallace told a campaign official, according to historical accounts. "I will never be out-niggered again.''
He wasn't. Alabama rewarded his conversion by electing him governor the next time around. "Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!'' he shouted to a roaring crowd at his 1963 inauguration.
These days the language is less mean-spirited and more restrained, but the tactic is the same. Cynical politicians promote their careers by inflaming fear and prejudice against an unpopular group, no matter how hurtful the tactic or dishonest the rhetoric.
If it helps their careers to vote to deny full legal rights to a segment of the population, so be it.
Hence the sudden interest in reviving a constitutional ban on gay marriage.
She goes on later to state:
Wallace invoked God's name 23 times in that notorious 1963 inaugural address.
Then, as now, proponents of discrimination railed against the power of the judiciary. No one was sharper at demonizing "activist judges'' than Wallace. U.S. Supreme Court justices were "omnipotent black-robed despots.''
He called an old law school friend of his, federal Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. of Montgomery, "an integratin', scalawaggin', race-mixin', bald-faced liar,'' according to a news account of the day.
Other Than Race
There were no doubt good-hearted Alabamians who supported Wallace for reasons other than race, such as his belief the federal government had become too powerful.
Likewise, there are those who oppose gay marriage out of sincere religious faith or for reasons other than sheer homophobia.
But these people might take a close look at the company they are keeping and the politicians who lead them. They might look into the past and consider the future.
"The question is, ultimately, what side of history are people on,'' asks David Buckel, senior counsel to the gay rights legal organization, Lambda.
Before his fourth and final term as governor, Wallace said he had been wrong on race. And then he went about asking former enemies for forgiveness, from leading civil rights activists to that "scalawaggin'' judge.
The problem rests not only with opportunist politicians, but with the people who give them the opportunity.
So there you have it. It's all about appealing to the dark side of people in order to get elected. They're not really against gays or gay marriage. They just understand that if they get "out queered" they won't get elected.
Wallace himself when asked why his rhetoric was so mean spirited toward blacks stated, "You know, I tried to talk about good roads and good schools and all these things that have been part of my career, and nobody listened. And then I began talking about niggers, and they stomped the floor."
Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.
