"Obedience" -- Bigotry at Work in Maine | The Bilerico Project
It is shocking to me that the American political process now allows for “obedience to God” to go to the state polls and cripple the civil rights of any protected group. And LGBT people are now a federally protected group. Supposedly ballot measures are “more democratic”…a legitimate way for the “will of the people” to express itself on issues state elections. And it’s true that they started out in California with a legitimate, democratic, non-ideological issue, namely property taxes.
But today the use of ballot measures has veered off into attempts at imposing religious ideology. And “the will of the people” can be stampeded by bigotry, hysteria and disinformation.
Imagine the uproar if the anti-black Teabaggers (the ones who hate Obama and call him the anti-Christ) got enough signatures for a ballot measure limiting the rights of black people in a key state. Imagine if the civil rights of Jews, or Muslims, or Mormons, or women, could be thrown into the referendum raffle. So far, nobody has dared to go that far. But the barn door is open now, and sooner or later we will see broader, more blatant attacks on people’s civil rights at the state polls. The bigots have figured out how to operate that machine, and they have it humming with eerie efficiency.
Meanwhile, state and local referendums on LGBT issues — marriage, benefits, etc. — are the order of the day, and we often lose.
