Year of the bigot

Year of the bigot

 

• Bigot ‘“ Somebody who has very strong opinions, especially on matters of politics, religion, or ethnicity, and refuses to accept different views.

 

This is Joe Schwarz’s idea of marriage

The television political commercial shows two male wedding cake figurines sitting atop a wedding cake.

This is Gene DeRossett’s idea of traditional marriage.

A happy man and women emerge from a church, just married, ducking a shower of rice. I notice it is a white couple, no mixed couples here. In fact, only white people appear anywhere in this entire ad.


Joe Schwarz is against a ban on gay marriage. There is a difference; Gene DeRossett will support traditional marriage. That’s why Gene DeRossett has been endorsed by Michigan Conservatives and Pro-Life leaders. Gene DeRossett, the trusted conservative we need to defend our values.

 

This was one of the many political commercials that aired on local television here in the last few weeks, leading up until primary election day today.

The first time I heard this ad, I was flabbergasted. I knew that some people wanted a to legalize bigotry here in Michigan. Heck, the sitting President of the United States wants to legalize and ad bigotry to the constitution with an amendment. But to run a political ad of this sort?

I am not gay, nor do I have any gay friends. At least none I know to be gay, though I suspect one or two. At one time in my life, that would have meant a lot to me. I would not have been able to be friends with someone who I knew to be gay. It creeped me out back then. I don’t want to say I was homophobic, but perhaps I was. I am not proud of my views, looking back, any more than I am proud of the many fistfights I was in. We grow and change as time goes on. I learned to control my anger, and more, I learned to love people for who they were, not what their sexual preference happened to be.

Some will say, I’m sure, that being against gay marriage is not being a bigot. Perhaps. But what if the issue was not gay marriage, but black and white marriage. Would that be bigotry? Where do you draw the line?

Some will say it is a moral issue. These people would have made the same argument one hundred years ago about black and white marriage. Or perhaps point to the bible for their justification, at the same time eating a BLT. (I will wait while the few of you who don’t get the irony think about it…)

We are living in a post-9/11 world in which our country is supposedly more united. Perhaps not politically, but at least in our love of country and fellow Americans. Yet here is an issue in which hate takes a center stage. People who want to become leaders, endorsing the idea of bigotry in the name of values.

Who’s values are they speaking of? The majority of Americans? I hate to think that the majority of America still harbors such hatred and bigotry for a group of people. I thought we had learned that lesson long (and not so long) ago.

Love thy neighbor. Unless, of course, he or she is gay. Then by all means hate them, deny them the same basic rights you have. And do it in the name of decency and morality. Why not take it to the next logical step, then, and not allow them to drink from the same water fountain in the park you take your children. Deny them entry to the local eatery you enjoy taking your family to after Sunday Mass. Be sure to put up a nice, big sign that says ‘No Gays Allowed’ on the front window. If the restaurant is really old, you may look in the back room for the old ‘No Blacks Allowed’ sign and just cross off the word Blacks and write in Gays.

I know I will be flamed in the comments section below. I will read every one of them, and do something it seems many people do not: keep an open mind.

As a post-script, I would like to add that as I type this, most of the votes have been counted. There were six Republicans running for the office Gene DeRossett was campaigning for, the Michigan House of Representatives, 7th District. As it stands, Gene is in fifth place, with 6% of the vote, and the winner appears to be the above-mentioned Joe Schwarz, with 28%. So perhaps the bigot will not inject his hatefulness into our states constitution after all.