( I fully expect to retract all of this post
when it comes out this is 100% from The Onion )
 Someone gathered the Mississippi Republicans all together and took a poll! Now, first they all went on and on about how they wanted Colonel Reb back ( along with their beloved rebel flag ) back at Ole Miss football games. But, then they just let go on all sorts of topics. First among them how saintly and electable their own Governor Haley Barbour ( sounds French to me! ) AND Sarah Palin are, then they went on to some other topics:  Yes, It is 2011 and SIXTY PERCENT of the Republicans polled in the Magnolia state think that the STATE , a big brother government should be keeping evil black men from defiling their states fragile Southern Belles. Put on your Kyle hat for a few minutes and pretend you enjoy wallowing in some political poll numbers.( I was in high cotton reading all of these ) Bring it home Kyle! It was just last month that full same sex marriage equality failed in the Maryland Senate - after passing in the house, and it was the African American state senators from Baltimore who at first were all for it, felt the pressure from the black church and retracted their support. I started many a post about this, knowing that for many of you readers , I am the main source for lgbt news, but the words were just to hard to write.... seriously. So, I just passed, I mean I am one of the VERY few Southerners left that still ( not that it is that bad of a thing ) suffer from classic Southern guilt [ a concept that the vast majority of folks living in Dixie don't even understand ] This poll coming right on the heels of the Saint Haley Barbour's ( sounds French to me ) comments that he does not remember things being at all bad for colored folks back in the 1950's ( i.e. the good old days ). Nope, he specifically recalls singin' and dancin'.........Look at their damn state flag folks, who is surprised. But this is not a post to bash Mississippi, no, it is sort of a wake up call to those African Americans who do not see the correlation between my fight for equality and theirs. A long time favorite placard at almost any marriage equality rally is this :  Get it ? |
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Re: the parallels between African American and gblt groups' struggles for equality: back some 8 or 10 years ago when I was working with our local groups, Karl Rove made a push in the state to get an anti-same-sex marriage provision put into the state constitution. It was all done to drive voter turnout, natch, and we didn't put a lot of effort into opposing it because - ARKANSAS - what's the point, amirite? Also our read on the situation was that marriage equality was going to have to come through the courts to touch the state anyway.
In any case, while all this anti-gay marriage stuff was being kicked up, the head of the "Arkansas Faith & Values Coalition", a fudie preacher I knew and had actually worked with on anti-casino measures, goes on the radio where he laments to the host about how same-sex marriage is going to destroy marriage and all the rot you've heard so many times before. So...I call in, identify myself, and say, "Larry, you need to CALM DOWN. No one is going to force you to divorce your wife and marry a man. And all of the rationales I've heard you give about why gays shouldn't be extended the same rights as you or me, they all basically boil down to "well, the majority of people here in Arkansas don't WANT them to have those rights," as if that makes it a legitimate reason to deny them. I'm sure we had a lot of folks saying the same about segregation 50 years ago - that also was something the majority of people didn't want to accept...but we aren't supposed to deny certain people rights just because a majority doesn't want them to have them. If we did, this state would still be segregated."
So ol' Larry comes back with how "deeply offended" he was that I would "equate this issue with civil rights for African Americans." I cut him off and said, "don't try that dodge, Larry, I did nothing of the sort and everyone listening knows that what I said is that this is like anti-segregation sentiment in the fact that both are premised on the idea that it's ok to deny some people rights just because other people don't want them to have them. And it is just like that, by your own argument."
Well, anyway, that was that and of course we now have an anti-same sex marriage amendment to our deeply serious state constitution. But what was funny was that a few days later, I got a call from my stylist, who asked, "did you call in to the radio the other day? Because my client so-and-so heard it and told me about it and she guessed it was you." Which of course it was, which amused him no end when I told him how the conversation went down.
It IS a very small town, as you know, Kyle.
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