Also from this week’s BAR, perhaps the only thing Dale Carpenter and I ever agree on:
There’s no evidence hate crimes laws actually deter hate crimes….
Back in 2001, he and I columnarly ganged up on the gleemeisters who believed that Texas enacting a (non-trans-inclusive) hate crime law (re-animating the phrase ’sexual preference’ to supplant ’sexual orientation’) actually meant something.
As you might have guessed, he and I haven’t ever agreed about ENDA.
And, as you might also have guessed, there’s more to his BAR column than that slam at the futility of hate crimes laws.
Overall, its a pathetic Log Cabin-ite slap at the Dems: ‘A Failing Mid-Term Grade for Dems’ he proclaims.
Not surprisingly, the obvious area in which I think they deserve a zero - capitulation to Barney Frank’s 1970’s transphobic fantasies - is what Dale thinks is the Dems’ biggest success:
ENDA (worth up to 15 points): The Employment Non-Discrimination Act passed the House, with 35 Republicans providing the necessary margin for passage. That first-ever triumph for a gay-rights bill was thanks largely to the leadership of Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank (D), who fended off efforts by left-wing gay groups to kill the bill because it did not include explicit protection for transgender people. Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) has promised to introduce the bill in the Senate, but so far no action has been taken or scheduled. It’s unclear whether the bill will even get a vote in the Senate this year.
Points for the Democrats: 5.
Look at his other whines:
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Federal recognition of gay relationships (worth up to 50 points): Congress has done nothing to eliminate or modify the Defense of Marriage Act, passed by a Republican Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996.
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Gays in the military (worth up to 30 points): Congress has done nothing to eliminate or modify the ban on gays in the military, passed by a Democratic Congress and signed by Clinton in 1993. There have been no hearings on the subject, either
Golly gee - the two issues that would be guaranteed to get the Dobsonoids in rally-around-whoever-the-fuck-the-Republicans-nominate mode in November are the all-or-nothing kool-aid he expects Democrats to drink (even while expecting them to rigidly adhere to so-called incremental progress on trans-inclusion in ENDA.)
Incremental progress.
Its still the lie that’s for dinner.
The insanity of gay marriage greed.
Its still heart and soul of its chef.
