Mar 05, 2004   | COMMENTS     

Editors’ note: Sound Off! is a weekly feature for readers to air their views on the issues of the day. Submissions were made via the Web or by calling 800-485-6907.

The Issue: Gay Republicans
I would like to thank the Log Cabin Republicans for all of their hard work. The way their party wants to write discrimination into our constitutions — well they must be beaming with pride!

If all of us voted, gay Republicans excluded, Bush and company won’t be in office waging wars against innocent civilians and against civil liberties granted by the Constitution. So get up off your asses and vote him outta office!

Patrick Guerriero of Log Cabin is a sell out and a traitor to the gay community. It’s pretty sad for Log Cabin when the Republicans don’t want them and they are not respected in the majority of the gay and lesbian community. Why is it that most gay Republicans are so discreet about their views? Because they know that they are wrong. My advice to LCR is see a therapist and get over your self-hate.

Hopefully the million gullible gay Republicans who naively thought they were voting for a “uniter” in 2000 now see the George W. Bush the rest of us saw.

The GOP platform is completely anti-gay and Bush is leading the call to rob us of marriage forever. Voting Republican this year doesn’t take a brain, just half of one. I don’t vote my crotch, I only vote for people who support my rights and dignity as a human being!

I am so sick of hearing put downs on Republicans over gay issues. Remember all the good Clinton did for gays when he was in office? Do the Defense of Marriage Act and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell ring a bell for anybody?

The Issue: Marriage
I was at the gym on an Army base watching when President Bush went on TV making his ridiculous call for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. The sound on the TV was turned down, but there was a caption under Bush’s face that read “A Preemptive Strike?” referring to this federal marriage amendment. A soldier walked past me, noticed the caption and asked, “Who’s Bush attacking now?” I replied, “The U.S. Constitution.”

The Constitution is not in place to provide protection for the religious institution of marriage but rather for the protection of all the citizens of the United States.

“Marriage” is a term that is waved like a flag by conservatives and traditionalists and it is used as banner by the “right” all the time. So how is it that when it comes to gay “marriage,” suddenly it’s too liberal, and not acceptable?

Give heterosexuals and homosexuals equal rights: Ban all marriage in the USA!

Every gay and lesbian tax-paying citizen in the U.S. must file a heterosexually-biased government tax return this year. But where we have the option of choosing to file “single,” “married,” “married filing jointly,” etc., wouldn’t it be fun if every gay person crossed out those options and wrote “GAY” or “LESBIAN” in its place?

If marriage is “the most fundamental institution of civilization” according to George Bush, what is divorce? Surely then divorce is the destruction of the most fundamental institution of civilization and what, then, is the president doing to bring about the end of divorce?

It looks like the queer community is getting dissed from all sides — not just by the usual Republican suspects but by fair-weather “friends” among the leading Democratic candidates. John Kerry has explicitly stated he supports an anti-gay marriage amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution. With friends like these, who needs enemies? We’re being asked to cast our votes for “kinder and gentler” bigotry. There are two candidates in the race — Dennis Kucinich and Al Sharpton — who support gay marriage. They have been largely ignored by the media and marginalized by the pundits, but they represent our best hope of influencing the Democratic Party’s platform and its eventual nominee.