Not-So-Gay Politics
September 8, 2011 - by
Gay-rights supporters are fighting hard to keep the gay-marriage amendment off the state ballot. That’s understandable. Who wants to have prejudice against themselves enshrined in the Constitution?
But I hope the Republicans succeed in scheduling a statewide vote. Not just because Public Policy Polling predicts it will lose. But also because it will hurt Republicans in North Carolina for years to come.
The GOP will carve in stone its image as mean, narrow-minded and out of touch. A generation of younger voters – the voters who elected Obama in 2008 and stayed home in 2010 – will find a reason to vote and vote Democratic.
Young voters – and voters in metropolitan areas – hoot when they hear the anti-gay crowd’s ads: “Marriage is at risk.”
These voters think the risk to marriage is heterosexual couples breaking up, not gay couples wanting to get married.
Speaker Thom Tillis, I suspect, gets this. He has been noticeably MIA in this debate. He’s probably like a lot of Republicans who wish it would go away, but are afraid to stand up to the GOP’s Old Testament caucus.
Me, I’m pulling for Reps. Stam and Folwell to dig this hole deeper.
Not-So-Gay Politics
September 8, 2011/
Gay-rights supporters are fighting hard to keep the gay-marriage amendment off the state ballot. That’s understandable. Who wants to have prejudice against themselves enshrined in the Constitution?
But I hope the Republicans succeed in scheduling a statewide vote. Not just because Public Policy Polling predicts it will lose. But also because it will hurt Republicans in North Carolina for years to come.
The GOP will carve in stone its image as mean, narrow-minded and out of touch. A generation of younger voters – the voters who elected Obama in 2008 and stayed home in 2010 – will find a reason to vote and vote Democratic.
Young voters – and voters in metropolitan areas – hoot when they hear the anti-gay crowd’s ads: “Marriage is at risk.”
These voters think the risk to marriage is heterosexual couples breaking up, not gay couples wanting to get married.
Speaker Thom Tillis, I suspect, gets this. He has been noticeably MIA in this debate. He’s probably like a lot of Republicans who wish it would go away, but are afraid to stand up to the GOP’s Old Testament caucus.
Me, I’m pulling for Reps. Stam and Folwell to dig this hole deeper.