Gay rights, Barbara Bush and David Kato
Barbara Bush deserves all the attention (and praise) she's getting for throwing her lot in with gay rights advocates in New York state, where a bill to legalize same-sex marriage was defeated in 2009. Though her words are unremarkable and, given recent polls, practically mainstream, the fact that her father made gay-baiting a centerpiece of his reelection campaign makes her views on the subject newsworthy. Likewise, her mother received much attention when she revealed last year that she privately opposed her husband's call in 2004 for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. With so many Bushes coming out on the side of marriage equality, one starts to wonder if George W. is the real gay-rights rogue of the family.
But if you want a real profile in courage, I suggest you read the New York Times' Jan. 27 story on Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato, who was beaten to death in his country last week. His bravery was nothing short of heroic, as persisted in a country where the public dialogue on gays and lesbians resembles the pre-genocide propaganda in Rwanda that contributed to the slaughter of nearly 1 million Tutsis.
It's not known for sure yet whether Kato's death came at the hands of anti-gay thugs, but his slaying should draw international scorn over the poisonous atmosphere in Uganda, where lawmakers are considering a bill to turn homosexuality into a capital offense. The Times' editorial board will weigh in later Tuesday afternoon on Kato's activism and what his government's abhorrent behavior on gay rights should mean for U.S.-Uganda relations.
RELATED:
Uganda needs a lesson in gay rights
Resolute Republicans to go after D.C.'s gays, symbolically
Marriage: A word? A relationship? Are the two the same?
After New York, will marriage equality have to wait?
-- Paul Thornton
Photo: A Ugandan carries a picture of slain gay activist David Kato during his funeral Friday.
Credit: Marc Hofer / AFP/Getty Images
Why do we want to control everyone? Government free marriage is the only way to fix this issue. Time to change the argument. Why are we asking the government to control our lives? Why do we want the government to recognize anything? For or against should not be the argument, government free marriage NOW!
Posted by: sara9miller | February 01, 2011 at 03:00 PM
Please go to http://saveugandagays.com/home for a cause
Posted by: DD1 | February 01, 2011 at 04:10 PM
Please check out saveugandagays.com for a cause
Posted by: DD1 | February 01, 2011 at 04:11 PM
Well of course they support gay rights. Dubya himself probably does and did as well but he had to appeal to the religious hate-mongers of his base. Now I see he doesn't even want to comment on politics anymore.
Probably just as well because if he did and was honest, he'd have to admit he and his party wrecked the economy amongst many other sins.
Posted by: affableman | February 01, 2011 at 04:41 PM
Liberal garbage, and the LA Times cannot resist to proclaim an idiot's (B Bush) pronouncements over the gay marriage as being mighty deep and insightful (of course, they forget that just a few years ago Barbara and Jena were the Times' laughing stock for their silly antics - now, since Barbara's gone rectal rights, she is the nearest to a sage living in a Hymalaya cave) -
Here an intelligence test for the LA Times: we have the following series of people who support gay marriage: Hillary Swank, Megham McCain, Barbara Bush... who the most likely to follow: Pee Wee Herman, Tiny Tim, or Ronald McDonald?
This describes pretty well the level of intelligence of those who support the gay marriage -
Posted by: misanthropicus | February 01, 2011 at 05:41 PM
@misanthropicus: Was that satire?
Posted by: Paul Thornton | February 02, 2011 at 06:33 PM