Why John Kerry is Wrong (Again)

John Kerry has come out saying that it's wrong for Massachusetts and the Democratic Party as a whole to take on the mantle of gay rights and equality and make this part of the party platform.

True, as a straight person myself (and an Independent - at least for the time being - rather than a Dem), I don't have to write a single word in support of gay rights. I don't choose to be married as a heterosexual, so why should I be concerned about whether gays can?

Sure enough, gay rights and gays themselves are a hot button topic. Many people are extremely uncomfortable with the topic.

But here's why I and others can't shut up or pretend the gay issue isn't important: Gays represent at least 1 person in every 10 living in the United States. Not exactly an insignificant number. Can we pretend that every person in 10 we know just doesn't count? If so, how?

Less than a century ago, women were not allowed to vote. In even less time, all Native Americans were basically viewed as "wards of the state" and also not allowed to vote in the same land they had inhabited longer than the white man. When I was still a small child, election workers traveling down south to try to get more blacks registered to vote were executed by those who didn't want blacks to influence elections. Today, we continue to see issues where people of color are hassled or kept from casting their vote.

Like many, I used to assume that "it really didn't matter" if gays were given the same rights as non-gays. As long as they could form what families they wanted to form, and live in relative safety and be able to get and hold decent jobs, where was the harm if they couldn't marry?

But it harms us all if we allow correctable inequity to continue. Gay equity can be accomplished. So since it can, it must be sought and gotten.

The groups who are so sanctimonious right now about limiting gay rights are by no means limited in their hate and fear. Today, they want to tell gays how they can live. Tomorrow, they want to force everyone to pray to their specific interpretation of a God. What if next week, they decide that Jews or other non-Christians shouldn't be allowed to vote? Perhaps women will no longer be allowed in the workplace. Maybe blacks and Hispanics and Asian Americans should not hold public office. And maybe these righeous types will decide that poor people who don't pay taxes shouldn't be allowed to attend public schools.

There's no end to what these other groups would like to limit or stop. If we cave on allowing 1 in 10 people basic rights, aren't we just inviting these groups to make new demands? Like the mayor of Spokane, Jim West, they're happy to impose restrictions that they cannot meet themselves.

It's time to stop conceding. Unfortunately, John Kerry has become very good at conceding. This is why we cannot afford to listen to him now.