Sep 30, 2005  |  By: CHRIS CRAIN  | COMMENTS     

political diversion from the war in Iraq (which they supported) or a weakening economy (which wasn’t).

The few Dems willing to carry the gay marriage football were even more coy, arguing there were easier ways to stop us from marrying, since the Defense of Marriage Act — signed into law by a Democrat — already protects states from recognizing gay couples married elsewhere.

Howard Dean’s attack on Schwarzenegger promised that “the Democratic Party is committed to ensuring that all American families, regardless of their composition, are treated equally.” Does falling back on DOMA as the easiest way to keep Massachusetts marriages from being recognized elsewhere sound like a commitment to equality for our families?

AND THERE ON the sidelines, treating this epic struggle like a spectator sport, are our national gay rights organizations. The Human Rights Campaign, celebrating this weekend an embarrassing 25-year losing streak, has backed the Invertebrates’ sneaky game plan and doesn’t even count a public commitment to marriage equality on its annual congressional scorecard.

The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, once a firebrand group, has similarly been reduced to cheerleader status, handing out leadership awards to the likes of Dean and Tom Daschle, who had to be publicly goaded into fulfilling a promise to block the FMA from coming up for a vote in the first place.

Someone needs to throw a flag on all this political cheating. The stakes are too high to allow both parties to continue treating our basic freedoms like a political football. We are, at the least, entitled to a real debate on the issue, and let the better side prevail.