Gays bad, earth flat

Republican state Sen. Alan Cropsey of DeWitt is spearheading an effort to add the so-called Marriage Protection Amendment to the Michigan Constitution. If there were some sort of truth-in-amendment-naming law, the effort would be called the Homosexual Persecution Act. Whatever it is called, Cropsey is pushing a bill that, if approved by the Legislature and voters, would prevent gay marriages in Michigan from obtaining legal sanction.

The proposed amendment also would overturn local “domestic partners” ordinances, says Jeffrey Montgomery, director of the Triangle Foundation gay-advocacy group. Detroit, Ann Arbor and many other municipalities have such laws that provide health benefits and other privileges to gay partners of city workers.

Human rights ordinances that grant gays equal protection also would be nullified, says Montgomery. The amendment “unmasks Cropsey for who he really is,” says Montgomery. The measure isn’t really trying to protect marriage, Montgomery avers, but is an attempt to make certain that Michigan gays have no chance of ever seeing legal recognition of their unions.

In other words, Cropsey is a tool of the Christian right, which for whatever deep psychological insecurities, just can’t find it in their hearts to love gays (at least not openly).

There are two ways to amend the state Constitution. One is to have the state House and Senate vote, by two-thirds majority, to put a proposed amendment before voters, who then must also approve the measure by a two-thirds vote. The other is to mount a petition drive that would place a measure directly on the ballot for voter approval.

Oakland and Jackson county commissions have already passed resolutions supporting the amendment. But neither Oakland nor Jackson went so far as to include the preamble adopted by Lapeer County, which states, “Whereas, organizations such as the Center for Disease Control and the American Medical Association report that an overwhelming disproportionate number of cases of AIDS, Gonorrhea, Hepatitis A, and Hepatitis B are accounted for in homosexuals, and legalization of gay marriages opens the floodgates to adoption, foster-care, custody and childcare in which innocent children could be at risk …”

The measure passed by a vote of 4-1, which makes us yearn for more truth in naming — specifically, the Lapeer County Board of Commissioners should be re-christened the Lapeer Board of Intolerant, Bigoted, Mouthbreathing, Luddite Wingnuts.