State of (Dis)Union
President George W. Bush used his State of the Union speech to kick off his 2004 re-election campaign. And there was plenty in the speech that should make gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people nervous.
Much of his speech focused on defending his international policies—particularly the war in Iraq, where we have yet to unmask the alleged ‘weapons of mass destruction.’
When his speech did turn homeward, there was a heavy emphasis on social conservatism through that tricky phrase, ‘traditional values.’ In the lead-up to his attack on gay marriage, for example, Bush claimed that ‘The values we try to live by never change.’
History shows they do, and quite happily so, or Blacks would still be sitting at the back of the bus and women would still be barefoot and in the kitchen and all of us would still be so deeply in the closet as to be invisible.
Whenever people, and particularly politicians, start yapping about ‘traditional values’ it’s always a red flag. It’s an expression that has come to be code for attacking gay men and lesbians. Bush never uttered the words ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’ or ‘bisexual.’ He didn’t even use the antiseptic ‘homosexual.’ Still, his attack was clear and straightforward.
Though Bush has been hedging his bets on whether or not to support a constitutional amendment that would alter the Constitution in order to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman, his speech made it clear he would support his party’s core right-wingers on this issue.
He called marriage ‘one of the most fundamental, enduring institutions of our civilization.’ It’s true that marriage is a staple of our culture—and that’s one reason it is so important that we as gays and lesbians have equal access to it under the law if we so choose.
Then, alluding to the Massachusetts high court ruling, Bush assailed what he called ‘activist judges.’ He accused them of ‘redefining marriage by court order, without regard for the will of the people and their elected representatives.’
Perhaps Bush needs a civic lesson on the separation of powers in the American system of government. Let’s throw in history lesson, as well, so Bush can see the long list of historical grievances (most notably in the Black civil rights struggle) where social prejudices and politicians with the spines of jellyfish were, thankfully, overridden by the courts. [And what about his own ‘election’ as president, stamped YES by the Supremes?]
But Bush made it clear where he will stand on this issue if push comes to shove: ‘On an issue of such great consequence, the people’s voice must be heard. If judges insist on forcing their arbitrary will upon the people, the only alternative left to the people would be the constitutional process. Our nation must defend the sanctity of marriage.’
Funny how judges who disagree with Bush are simply ‘arbitrary.’ They couldn’t possibly be interpreting state (and one day, hopefully, federal) constitutional law, could they?
And I am always miffed by this stance that keeping same-sex couples out of marriage is somehow ‘defending’ it. We don’t want to get marriage so we can destroy that institution. If anything, allowing us to get married will help shore up marriage, not weaken it.
Bush’s comments were not really a surprise. But now he’s said them out right, and we in the GLBT communities have just one more concrete reason to work to defeat Bush.
While his words on same-sex marriage are getting a lot of the public’s and the media’s attention, there is another critical issue that Bush touched on: His call for doubling money for abstinence-based sex education programs.
You don’t have to be a right-winger or a conservative to believe it’s best for teens not to have sex until they are more mature and responsible. But abstinence-based programs ignore the hard reality that America’s kids are having sex sooner. Our teens—including the GLBT ones—deserve honest and accurate information.
There’s also an catch-22 for us GLBT people: They preach no sex until marriage. And at the same time, Bush is trying to deny us marriage.
What needs to happen is that all of us as GLBT people need to work to defeat Bush’s re-election campaign. No more excuses about how Bush is simply trying to mollify a radical element of his party, how he is ‘tolerant’ and ‘compassionate’ or, for heaven’s sake, that he isn’t anti-gay at all. He’s taken sides. Now it’s time for us to.
MubarakDah@aol.com.