Indiana's Marriage Discrimination Amendment – Back from the Grave

Like Dracula rising from the grave with the wooden stake still plunged in his heart, the Marriage Discrimination Amendment (currently styled as HJR3) has returned for a summer rerun.  The special session of the Indiana General Assembly, called by Governor Mitch Daniels to deal with passage of a state budget, was presented with this proverbial rotten egg this week by State Representatives Eric Turner (R-Marion) and Dave Cheatham (D –North Vernon).

 

Now, with schools in turmoil –laying off teachers and unable to make the millions in budget cuts forced by this session, with cities such as Muncie having to cut 32 firefighters and five police, and with the jobless situation in Indiana at an unacceptably high rate, I can see why these .. uhm.. "gentlemen" think that banning what doesn't exist is crucial.  "Why, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, there's gays out there about to get hitched and they're coming your way, Indiana!"

 

Really guys, are you so nuts as to think that ANY Hoosier rates this as the top issue to be dealt with in the special session?  Wait, you’re the legislature that declared sugar cream pie our official pie instead of getting a budget passed.  I forgot.  A little Mrs. Wick's goes a long way, eh?

 

And now comes news that Governor Mark Sanford (SC), who was reputedly thinking of seeking the Presidency in 2012, is joining his fellow Republican Senator John Ensign (NV) in admitting to having an extra-marital affair.  Hm, I think these guys beating up on gay and lesbian families doth protest too much.   Wait, maybe they're right!  Now that six states – count'm SIX (one of the numbers in 666 – sign of the anti-Christ, doncha know!) – have allowed gay marriage, it IS having an effect on ALL marriages.  Why politicians of every stripe are breaking out in the horizontal mamba with foreign women and employees for goodness sake!!  (New York Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer at least had the decency to resign.)   It must be due to all that gay and lesbian influence in the marriage pool!  We need some strong bleach in the Hoosier political pool before it affects some of our own representatives.  Cheatham and Turner may have a great idea here – think they doubt their colleagues'  chastity and fidelity perhaps?

 

Of course, that was an example of snark for those of you for whom I was too subtle.  Look, this is the regular sop to the right-wingers of the Indiana Family Institute, which is already promoting this move and raising funds from it while admitting it has a snowball's chance in Indy.

 

 The Unholy Trinity of Curt Smith, Micah Clark, Eric Miller and their alcolytes want you to think that Hoosier gay and lesbian couples and families are a huge threat to American morality as well as the fabric of the American family.  They would rather look to an amorphous "other" enemy to bind their own fractured followers behind a cohesive strategy on taxes, than to deal with issues head on.  (How taxes became a religious or moral issue is beyond me – don't you also want fire protection and police in Muncie or schools across the state?)

 

Please help Indiana Equality Action to stop this nonsense one more time – take a moment from your vacation and email House Speaker Pat Bauer – h6@in.gov or to call 1-800-382-9842 toll free and speak with your own State Representative. Tell them to stick to the agenda of getting the people's work done.   I know I've called mine.

 

Comments

[Bill]

Daily Kos: Indiana's Marriage Discrimination Amendment – Back from the Grave
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/6/24/746574/-Indianas-Marriage-Discrimination-AmendmentBack-from-the-Grave

[Don Sherfick]

Ask 100 people, be they legislators, media folks, or just ordinary Hoosier citizens if they think HJR3 is simply a renumbered SJR7, the amendment that got through the legislature on the first pass in 2005, but hasn't made it though again since when people woke up and read its horribly ambiguous second sentence. Betcha' 98 of them will nod their head yes.

Sadly, as bad as SJR7 was, HJR3, a supposedly minor rewording to "clarify" things, is even worse. At least with SJR7 sponsors insisted they were only interested in stopping "unelected activist judges". But they assured us that if the General Assembly wanted to, it remained free even to enact full civil unions.

In a sneaky move they don't want to discuss the reason for, their new version strips the legislature of that ability. So much for letting one's elected legislators reflect their changing attitudes.

The more people realize this major reversal of position, the more the sponsors will exposed for some pretty shoddy tactics.

[Christopher Anderson]

It is correct to say that the general assembly should not be addressing this issue in the special session, as clearly there are more important things they need to be figuring out. However, as we have seen some state judiciaries (California) try to go against the people's wishes and legalize marriage between two people of the same gender, the importance of HJR3 cannot be underrated. It, or a similar bill, should be passed soon in order to comply with the wishes of the majority of Hoosiers, and it should be done before certain judiciary actions are taken to counter its efforts.

[Don Sherfick]

Christopher, even a cursory study of Indiana constitutional law and precedent indicates that fears concerning what Hoosier courts would do in this area are unfounded. Our courts are acknowledged nationwide as consistently refusing to second-guess the legislature in applying our own "equal protection" clause. Unlike California, Massachussets, etc., they don't judge the lawmakers' motives, and will consider a law constitutional so long as there is even the remotest "rational basis" for distinguishing between two groups of people.

Supporters of HJR-3 continue to make judges the easy scapegoats, trying to draw attention away from the fact that they've stealthfully changed it from what even that say it once was: something that kept our lawmakers totally free. Even their spokespersons said this legislative ability was right and proper, even though they would not support the legislation themselves. When they rewrote the measure into HJR-3 they took away that legislative power.

Oh, they will say that our lawmakers can take SOME little steps toward doling out benefits to gay and lesbian couples, but if that collection looks "substantially" like marriage, all bets are off. And just WHO is to decide when enough is enough? Why, those nasty blacked-robed activist judges, of course!

How ironic....and how totally hypocritical.