The Bigot’s Last Stand

“We will not obey,” is the pitiful warning from the American army of right wing evangelical religious bigots to the Supreme Court of the United States if they recognize gay marriage as a constitutional right.

It’s the same sort of warning the rabid racial bigots declared in the 1950’s when the Court was poised to desegregate American public schools.

“We respectfully warn the Supreme Court not to cross that line,” declares the  Pledge in Solidarity to Defend Marriage. “We stand united together in defense of marriage. Make no mistake about our resolve.” 

First things first – I’ll be mighty surprised (but delighted) if SCOTUS decides that gay marriage is a fundamental federal constitutional right upon either due process or equal protection grounds. It will be another 5-4 decision and this time I just don’t believe that Justice Kennedy has the intellectual courage – the balls if you will -- to cast his lot on the side of reason. He will most likely cop out and side with the religious extremists on the Court who believe that the issue should be left to the democratic process of the several states.

I hope I’m wrong.

No matter what the Court does, however, the handwriting is on the wall. A growing majority of Americans today are fed up with mindless religious discrimination against 10% of the population who had no choice but to be born homosexual. It is only a matter of time before their rights as human beings are fully recognized in the United States.

But the religious bigots, just like the racial bigots before them, are having none of it. “While there are many things we can endure, redefining marriage is so fundamental to the natural order and the common good that this is the line we must draw and one we cannot and will not cross,” they cry.

“We’re facing a real Constitutional crisis if the Supreme Court rules adversely from our perspective on same-sex marriage,” warns Joe Scarborough. “For me there’s no option. I’m going to choose to serve the Lord. And I think that thousands of other pastors will take that position and hundreds of thousands – if not millions of Christians... “We have no choice. We cannot compromise our clear biblical convictions, our religious convictions.”

Never-mind that no one is really attempting to ‘redefine’ marriage; Gay marriage if recognized would still be marriage. The Constitution is supposed to be gender neutral. Equality is gender neutral. The sexes are equal. A man and a woman are equal under the law. A man and a man are equal under the law. A woman and a woman are equal under the law.   Equals under the law should enjoy equal rights. It’s not a matter of changing the definition. It’s a matter of equality of rights.

The bigots don’t see it that way. They actually believe that giving gay’s their rights will herald the “beginning of the end of Western Civilization.” The logic is truly bizarre. It comes down to: giving gays the right to marry will result in everyone turning into a homosexual. Only homosexuals will get married. They won’t reproduce sexually, so there will no longer be any offspring to perpetuate our civilization.

“The institution of marriage is fundamental and it must be defended,” they reason. “It’s the foundation for the entire culture. It’s been in existence for 5,000 years. If you weaken it -- or if you undermine it – the entire superstructure can come down. We see it as that important.”

But just exactly how is the institution of marriage weakened or undermined simply by allowing gays their equal rights? Do equal rights weaken their own marriages? Will heterosexual couples love each other less if homosexual couples marry? Do equal rights make it less likely that heterosexuals will continue to marry and have children? Will heterosexuals turn into homosexuals? Will it really result in the end of civilization as we know it? Will the sky fall?

I don’t think so.

But this is the bigot’s last stand.