Advertisement

Opinion: Resolute Republicans to go after D.C.’s gays, symbolically

Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Ultra-conservatives in Congress have done themselves one better this week, having found an even easier target for their homophobia than gay voters: gays who don’t have a voting representative in Congress. Some in the GOP want to bar gay marriage in the District of Columbia, the one city in the U.S. that has no voting power in Congress. The Hill reports:

House conservatives say they will pursue legislation that would ban gay marriage in the nation’s capital.Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC), told The Hill that he will push for a vote on the controversial issue in the 112th Congress. The RSC has 175 members. “I think RSC will push for it, and I’m certainly strongly for it. I don’t know if we’ve made a decision if I’ll do it or let another member do it, but I’m 100 percent for it,” Jordan said.

Advertisement

I have a sneaking suspicion that Jordan would wax democratic were those unelected judges on the Supreme Court to overturn Proposition 8 and subvert the will of California’s majority. (In fact, Jordan cosponsored a bill in 2010 condeming federal Judge Vaughn Walker for his Proposition 8 ruling.) Evidently, the principle of respecting the majority’s wishes (D.C., if it were a state, would easily be the bluest) applies only to judges.

The vote would no doubt be a symbolic one, just as the House’s action last week on healthcare was. Its only benefit would be to allow Jordan and his colleagues to go home and burnish their conservative bona-fides, having picked on a bunch of gays who live somewhere else and have no voting representation in Congress. Such displays of moral resolve go over better in certain parts of the country, I suppose.

RELATED:

Jonah Goldberg on gay marriage and rise of ‘HoBos’ (a.k.a. homosexual bourgeoisie)

A presumptuous phrase: Responsible procreation

Majority support for gay marriage appears to stick

Advertisement

Prop. 8 or not, a fast shift on marriage

-- Paul Thornton

Advertisement