As reported at thehill.com, King said the following on a conservative radio program:

If there’s a push for a socialist society where the foundations of individual rights and liberties are undermined and everybody is thrown together living collectively off one pot of resources earned by everyone, this is one of the goals they have to go to, same sex marriage, because it has to plow through marriage in order to get to their goal. They want public affirmation; they want access to public funds and resources.

For the moment, let’s set aside the idiocy of this statement.  Behind the fear, anger, and misinformation of this position, we also see exposed the laziness of the Right’s new and unhinged rhetoric.  Right now, the GOP just seems to be taking every strand of resentment and dissatisfaction in society – whether shrouded in populism, racism, or fundamentalism – and declaring socialism (or fascism in some instances).  One can’t imagine the intellectual pillars of American conservatism (Irving Kristol, William F. Buckley, etc.) using terms like socialism or fascism without actually understanding what these words mean.  But so what?  Why trouble ourselves with nettlesome details like “what words actually mean,” or “historical facts?”  This is the party of Joe the Plumber and Sarah Palin.

Andrew Sullivan agrees – and then points out how anti-socialist marriage rights actually are:

Socialist? You realize that King must have no understanding of the word, or that the word has now become synonymous in Foxland with “anything that scares me.” How on earth is allowing 2 percent of people the right to marry the person they love a path to redistribution of wealth or government ownership of the means of production? Marriage is an institution that helps people be independent of the state. If one spouse gets sick, it is his or her spouse’s first responsibility to care for him or her. Without the spouse, the government would have to step in. Marriage encourages responsibility, long-term commitment, and leads to better health. All of that too helps people remain independent of the state. In fact every single argument that social conservatives make about marriage for straights – and rightly so – also applies to marriage for gays.

The mindset that lumps this in with some amorphous threat to everything good and American is not rational. It is gripped by paranoia, illogic and prejudice.

Par for the course on today’s Right.  When the GOP is ready to engage in thinking again, there are people ready to rejoin.

-MN

Asked if he personally supported same-sex marriage, Clinton replied:

Yeah. I personally support people doing what they want to do.  I think it’s wrong for someone to stop someone else from doing that [same-sex marriage].

Clinton signed Don’t ask, don’t tell (DODT).  His endorsement of same-sex marriage may portend a growing confidence among Democrats and moderate Republicans to finally address equality for same sex couples and open service for gay and lesbian soldiers.  Admittedly, Clinton is less constrained by the election calculations that encumber Congress and the President when it comes to divisive social issues.  Nevertheless, Clinton has always possessed a keen sense for the shifting center of American politics.  I hope he’s right.

- SF

Remember Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth?  An equally dubiosly named group, Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, opposes gays in the military and is preparing for the coming battle. Expect this and other groups to “swift boat” the truth and our gay military men and women.

The truth is that Don’t ask, don’t tell (DADT) is deeply flawed.   As noted in a previous AOR post, gay soldiers, like Lt. Dan Choi, who disclose their sexual orientation, are discharged, independent of how competently they have served.  They were imminently qualified for years and decades until it was discovered they were gay. It doesn’t make any sense.

Opponents commonly argue that gays in the military harm morale.  A recent Military Times poll indicated that 10% of those asked would not re-enlist or extend their military service if DADT were repealed.  Losing 10% of our soldiers, when the armed forces are already stretched, would indeed be damaging.  I suspect that the actual numbers of de-enlistments would be significantly lower than the poll responses.  Nevertheless, the risk is real.

It’s a risk we must take to correct a horrible injustice and to strengthen our military in the long run.  Morale is not harmed on university campuses when gay men and women live in dormitories.  Gay professional athletes share hotel rooms and locker rooms with teammates.  Gay men and women serve in our churches and synogogues, in our court rooms and board rooms and all other facets of American life.  They are serving in our military, just not openly. It’s time for the U.S. military to catch up with every other profession.

The U.S. military provides some of the best leadership training available. Surely, it can manage the potential impact to its culture if gay soldiers serve openly.  We have the finest military in the world.  In the long run, that military will be even stronger if it includes the bravery and talent of all our citizens, including gay men and women who have already proven their ability and desire to serve our country.

- SF

Some of the lurid outfits discomfited, but the cacophony of colors, music, and cheering were entertaining and inspiring. Many couples carried placards disclosing the length of their relationships, often 20, 30 and 40 years.

What a horrible injustice that these relationships of multiple decades are denied equal legal standing. It’s wrong. By any sensible definition, these relationships are marriages. Calling them civil unions is a Clintonesque dodge.

Thoughtful, kind people genuinely disagree about same sex marriage. Some will never agree. Similarly thoughtful people tacitly tolerated slavery, anti-Semitism, sexism and other forms of prejudice when they knew it was wrong. The arc of history bends toward human justice and equality. For gay rights in America, the question is when?

Don’t look to Congressional Democrats and the Obama Administration according to Frank Rich’s New York Times column.

The political courage to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and achieve full equality will come only when more non-gay citizens of both parties find the courage to “come out” of the closet of silence.

The gay rights movement began in 1969, when a police raid of a Greenwich Village gay bar, called the Stonewall Inn, sparked riots.

Five year earlier, more than 1,000 northern whites, mostly college students, volunteered to travel to Mississippi and help black voters register during the 1964 “Freedom Summer”.

It’s time for more non-gay Americans to join the seminal civil rights issue of this generation!

- SF

UPDATE: July 1, 2009 — AN OPPORTUNITY TO ACT

On Tuesday, a military board told Lt. Dan Choi — an Iraq War veteran and Arabic linguist — that it was recommending his discharge from the Army for”moral and professional dereliction” under the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

Lt. Choi is taking his fight to repeal the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy to Congress.

I signed the letter below to Speaker Nancy Pelosi that Lt. Choi is going to personally deliver to her. The letter is being launched on Lt. Choi’s behalf by the Courage Campaign, Knights Out and the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

90,000 people have now signed this letter.  Please join me in signing Lt. Choi’s letter before Friday July 10th, by clicking on the link below:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/RepealDADT

- SF

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