In a fitting move by the Virginia General Assembly in the
waning hours of its raucous and fractious 2012 session[1],
lawmakers rejected the Richmond judgeship of Tracy Thorne-Begland, an openly
gay man[2].
Over the course of the 2012 session, legislators dealt with
such integral issues such as what kind of instrument should be used to
undertake a transvaginal ultrasound and how Virginia should combat voter fraud[3]
before anyone in the General Assembly was aware investigations were being
conducted on cases of voter fraud. In other words, the 2012 General Assembly
session in Virginia has been a boon for comedians and commentators looking for
signs of backwardness in the U.S.
The last day of the 2012 session proved to be no less
impressive in its hatefulness. In order to justify their decision, Republican
legislators argued that Thorne-Begland’s public positions on gay rights[4]
disallowed his impartiality as a judge. But for anyone who has listened to the
Republican Party, whether it be statewide or nationally, knows better than to
fall for this argument.
The GOP has made it a policy priority to send every
homosexual in the U.S. into hiding at a moment in our history that finally
seems ripe for a progression on the issue of gay rights. GOP lawmakers, in
fact, appear to revel in their own bigotry, whether it pertains to minority
groups, women, or homosexuals.
In Virginia, there is a twisted sense of what constitutes a
protected freedom. In the near future, you may be able to kill or injure
another individual for invading your home[5]
but you cannot be an openly gay judge. This sounds like Medieval law, not the
law of a state embedded in the United States in 2012.
So we have a ways to go in Virginia before the commonwealth
can truly throw off the less-than-savory baggage of its hateful past.
Fortunately, these Republican legislators are fighting a
losing battle. The winds of change have been blowing for some time now regarding
equality for homosexuals and the defenses of these Republicans have become
timeworn, like most of their other views.
No comments:
Post a Comment