It just had nothing to do with what we’re talking about. My proposition is that GOP opposition to gays is either the result of religious bigotry, or economics. I charitably chose to believe it was the latter. Perhaps I am mistaken.

The presentation I linked to is educational, and deserves a better read than you probably gave it. I learned a few things.

You taught me ER. I listened.

But its not just about what’s fair for gay people, is it? This is all part of a bigger dialog (or “narrative”, to use the annoying Newspeak that’s current today).

There is a struggle going on in the world today, and the most pitched battles are being fought right here in this country. We are trying to decide how we should govern ourselves and how we live our lives. This battle is economic and political, but it is mostly cultural. It is philosophical.

When I was a young man, the idea that gays might have rights didn’t even exist. Oh sure, I wasn’t brought up to hate gays, but I wasn’t taught that they were human beings either, that they had rights to believe and feel what they felt was right. We just didn’t talk about them. They didn’t matter to “real” people. Blacks had just started that evolution too when I was an adolescent (or I thought they had, their struggle had been going on for over a century already). Women were once considered subhuman creatures as well.

I’ll give you a hint. Watch that great old Sci-Fi flick “Forbidden Planet”, (1959) sometime. Check out how the male officers react to the female lead, Altaira. She is a pure sexual object, nothing else. Even though her character is highly educated, she is basically a pair of great legs as far as the ship’s crew is concerned, and not much else. A script like that could never be seriously considered today. There has been some progress.

Remember that the next time someone starts throwing around the term “Feminazi”. Its not just gays or women or blacks or any other minority or community that is still being marginalized, or ridiculed because they have the audacity to demand they be treated with respect, and dignity. The gays have a point, but they aren’t the only ones. We’re all in the same boat.

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
William James

I’m sure the TParty and the GOP are just dying to make the tax laws more gay-friendly, but those evil, gay-bashing Dems won’t let them.

And I suppose its Dems who are fighting gay-friendly legislation at the congressional and state level, too, and instituting all thse ‘defense of the family’ amendments and laws too.

Maybe some individual businesses are doing progressive things (probably because they realize it is in their benefit in the long run). Some individual businesses have also incorporated abortion and contraception policies, too. But as a whole, the party of busineness, the GOP, has allied itself with the culture of homophobia in this country, and has adopted its slogans and icons.

You know that Tom. Why fight it? You can’t.

but not one had the courage or decency to speak out.

Exactly.

Just one statistic: 60 percent of the Fortune 500–you know, those big, impersonal corporations–offer such benefits.

From this source, which also shows that costs are actually quite low for covering same sex couples.

Sorry, your theory about gay prejudice being born somehow out of Evil Capitalism doesn’t hold much water.

The problem right now seems to be tax laws.

Remember when that gay soldier, on actual combat duty at the time, was booed during the Republican primary debate? Sure, you can argue the people doing the jeering might have been a minority, a small group of vocal extremists who don’t really amount to much.

But the important thing to remember is of the nine nominees for the Presidency there, the standard bearers for their Party, not one opened his mouth in solidarity with that soldier. Not one called out the bigots and thugs in the audience. I doubt if all those politicians are homophobes, but not one had the courage or decency to speak out.