It isn't about marriage
ELECTION 2006
Democrat for Senate: Death penalty for practicing 'gays'
Candidate says incumbent Republican not advocating biblical values enough
A Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Ohio wants to make homosexual behavior a capital crime punishable by the death penalty.
Merrill Keiser Jr. is a trucker with no political experience, but he hopes to beat fellow Democrat Rep. Sherrod Brown in the May primary. The winner will try to unseat Republican incumbent Sen. Mike DeWine, assuming he wins the GOP primary.
"Just like we have laws against murder, we have laws against stealing, we have laws against taking drugs - we should have laws against immoral conduct," Keiser told WTOL-TV in Toledo.
Keiser, 61, says he's running as a Democrat because that's how he was registered the last time he voted.
The trucker, who hails from Fremont, Ohio, says there needs to be more adherence to biblical values in government, business and education - something he claims DeWine is not promoting.
"I believe that the United States has been moved in a Godless direction bythe courts," he told the Sandusky Register. "To get good men on the court, we need good senators."
This article appeared on March 7, 2006 on worldnet.com. The story came from the USA. However, we know how Australia follows the US and, in particular, how John Howard follows George Bush as though Howard is one of the palace corgis. And this is a story about a Democrat candidate and not a Republican. How much worse would the Republicans be? In the last week, the Australian Treasurer, Peter Costello, was saying that we should be grateful that we are no longer gaoled. Is Australia very much different to the US?
The current debate about the ACT civil union law is not about same sex marriage. We know that. The Christian right knows that. It is about whether committed loving relationships between persons of the same sex are valuable, whether they are morally equivalent to heterosexual relationships. The Christian right would argue that our relationships are not just inferior but that the participants are damned.
Some would say that we are fighting for a symbol. Many gay men and lesbians, like their heterosexual counterparts, do not want to marry. However, if apartheid had really provided for equal opportunity for people of all races, would dismantling of apartheid have been purely symbolic? I think not. In any case, any discriminatory regime does not, in practice, provide for equal rights and opportunity. If we are fighting for a symbol it is a potent symbol. It is the symbol that our relationships are as valuable as heterosexual relationships. Until that is recognised, we will be treated as second class citizens.
I am disappointed with the events of this week. Equally, I am disappointed with the apathy of the LGBT community. It was only about ten days ago, that there had only been a dozen submissions to the HREOC inquiry on discrimination against same sex relationships. The number stands now at two hundred, a promising improvement. However, every same sex couple in Australia is discriminated against with regard to superannuation and the Medicare Safety Net, to name just two areas. There are more than two hundred literate same sex couples in Australia! Where are the rest? (Submissions will be accepted until Friday, 16th June. Please, please make a submission!)
Yes, I am frustrated. I am frustrated at a national level. I am frustrated at a personal level. I sent out an email for a meeting on Monday of last week. I received no responses. I had to call each person individually last night. I am waiting for responses to about five other emails, which are more personal rather than organisational, but which are still primarily about pursuing our rights. And I have been wasting my energy trying to resolve a personal conflict with a co-worker in this cause, a conflict which should have been resolved amicably and graciously two years ago.
We are our own worst enemies!
Cross posted to fags_on_oxford, gaysydney, queeraustralia.
Democrat for Senate: Death penalty for practicing 'gays'
Candidate says incumbent Republican not advocating biblical values enough
A Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Ohio wants to make homosexual behavior a capital crime punishable by the death penalty.
Merrill Keiser Jr. is a trucker with no political experience, but he hopes to beat fellow Democrat Rep. Sherrod Brown in the May primary. The winner will try to unseat Republican incumbent Sen. Mike DeWine, assuming he wins the GOP primary.
"Just like we have laws against murder, we have laws against stealing, we have laws against taking drugs - we should have laws against immoral conduct," Keiser told WTOL-TV in Toledo.
Keiser, 61, says he's running as a Democrat because that's how he was registered the last time he voted.
The trucker, who hails from Fremont, Ohio, says there needs to be more adherence to biblical values in government, business and education - something he claims DeWine is not promoting.
"I believe that the United States has been moved in a Godless direction bythe courts," he told the Sandusky Register. "To get good men on the court, we need good senators."
This article appeared on March 7, 2006 on worldnet.com. The story came from the USA. However, we know how Australia follows the US and, in particular, how John Howard follows George Bush as though Howard is one of the palace corgis. And this is a story about a Democrat candidate and not a Republican. How much worse would the Republicans be? In the last week, the Australian Treasurer, Peter Costello, was saying that we should be grateful that we are no longer gaoled. Is Australia very much different to the US?
The current debate about the ACT civil union law is not about same sex marriage. We know that. The Christian right knows that. It is about whether committed loving relationships between persons of the same sex are valuable, whether they are morally equivalent to heterosexual relationships. The Christian right would argue that our relationships are not just inferior but that the participants are damned.
Some would say that we are fighting for a symbol. Many gay men and lesbians, like their heterosexual counterparts, do not want to marry. However, if apartheid had really provided for equal opportunity for people of all races, would dismantling of apartheid have been purely symbolic? I think not. In any case, any discriminatory regime does not, in practice, provide for equal rights and opportunity. If we are fighting for a symbol it is a potent symbol. It is the symbol that our relationships are as valuable as heterosexual relationships. Until that is recognised, we will be treated as second class citizens.
I am disappointed with the events of this week. Equally, I am disappointed with the apathy of the LGBT community. It was only about ten days ago, that there had only been a dozen submissions to the HREOC inquiry on discrimination against same sex relationships. The number stands now at two hundred, a promising improvement. However, every same sex couple in Australia is discriminated against with regard to superannuation and the Medicare Safety Net, to name just two areas. There are more than two hundred literate same sex couples in Australia! Where are the rest? (Submissions will be accepted until Friday, 16th June. Please, please make a submission!)
Yes, I am frustrated. I am frustrated at a national level. I am frustrated at a personal level. I sent out an email for a meeting on Monday of last week. I received no responses. I had to call each person individually last night. I am waiting for responses to about five other emails, which are more personal rather than organisational, but which are still primarily about pursuing our rights. And I have been wasting my energy trying to resolve a personal conflict with a co-worker in this cause, a conflict which should have been resolved amicably and graciously two years ago.
We are our own worst enemies!
Cross posted to fags_on_oxford, gaysydney, queeraustralia.