It isn’t often that straight people are affected by laws preventing same-sex marriages. But Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer is letting same-sex marriage laws affect his straight marriage. Stringer will marry his fiancé Elyse Buxbaum in Connecticut, instead of New York, as a form of protest against New York’s ban on gay marriages. The couple will obtain their marriage license at a civil ceremony in Connecticut before returning to New York for their religious wedding.
Scott and Elyse are taking their marriage elsewhere as a way of taking personal responsibility and setting an example for others. Stringer explained that “If enough people who have somewhat of a profile — not just politicians, but artists and business leaders — start going into Massachusetts or Connecticut and show New York how embarrassing it is that you can’t get a marriage license for same-sex couples, then we will change things.”
Seven months ago, the New York State Senate killed a bill allowing same-sex marriage in a 38-to-24 vote. Many local politicians have expressed disappointment and anger that the bill didn’t pass but Stringer is the first to publicly boycott the institution in response.
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As head of the Republican National Committee (RNC), Michael Steele sure wields a lot of influence. Yes, he’s put his foot in his mouth on more than one occasion as head of the RNC, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that he’s one of the foremost talking heads and leaders in the GOP.
So it’s no wonder that folks are wondering what Michael Steele has to say about the party platform of the Texas GOP. It was released a few weeks ago, and it might just be filled with some of the most anti-gay sentiments in the country.
Among the calls of the Texas GOP include:
- suggesting that gay people should not be allowed to have children;’
- wanting to recriminalize sodomy;
- suggesting that straight people who officiate anything that can be construed as a gay wedding be sent to prison;
- labeling homosexuality as something that “tears at the fabric of society.”
Sounds a little oppressive, right? Not to mention quite un-American. That’s why several groups, including the Human Rights Campaign, are out with a call to Michael Steele, urging him as one of the senior leaders in the Republican Party to repudiate this Texas GOP platform.
Steele owes it to Republicans to do so. Much has been made about how the Republican Party wants to become the “big tent” party, or the party that prizes individual liberty. Nothing strikes against those wishes more than this Texas GOP platform, which looks like a party platform more fit for the year 1810 than 2010. Will Michael Steele really stand idly by and say nothing, while the Republican Party in the biggest state in the country openly talks about arresting gay people, and putting straight people who support gay rights in jail?
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