Pam’s got a post up on the latest incarnation of Texas Governor Rick Perry’s use of the gay marriage issue to drive a wedge in the elctorate and push his base for more votes:
Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday electronically urged 10,000 Texans to approve a November proposal that would define marriage as between a man and a woman, and an anti-amendment group sent 10,000 Democrats a leaflet charging Perry and fellow Republicans with attacking gay and lesbian families.
Perry said by e-mail: “That marriage is the union between a man and a woman is a truth known to each one of us already, and any attempt to allow same-sex marriages is a detriment to the family unit and hurts our state and nation.”
His message was sent via the Texas Marriage Alliance, a Web-based effort started this year to support Proposition 2, which is among nine proposed constitutional tweaks on the Nov. 8 ballot.
No Nonsense in 2006, aligned with No Nonsense in November in opposition to the marriage amendment, paid for a mailing to past Travis County Democratic Party donors questioning the “unnecessary and divisive amendment.” Perry and “the Republican Legislature are running a shell game with an unnecessary, dangerous attack on our constitution and Texas families,” the leaflet states.
“Instead of working on real problems” such as school finance and taxes, it states, Perry and GOP legislators are “wasting our time and money on things like ‘sexy cheerleading,’ ” – a reference to unsuccessful legislation carried this year by a Democratic legislator, Rep. Al Edwards of Houston.
Well, you know, they do have a point. If Texas allowed more sexy cheerleading, then maybe the Vast Gay Conspiracy to Indoctrinate Otherwise Straight Boys would have a tougher time succeeding. Raise the hemlines, bare the midriff, drop the necklines, show some cleavage… that’ll keep our Texas boys straight!
(And no, of course I have no hidden agenda to get athletic teenage girls in skimpier clothing for the cheerleading contests on ESPN2. That would be sick and wrong.)
Keep in mind this is the same Rick Perry who, back in June, had this to say about gay marriage:
“Texans have made a decision about marriage and if there is some other state that has a more lenient view than Texas then maybe that’s a better place for them to live.”
Unfortunately, back in June Gov. Perry was plagiarizing the mid 20th-century segregationists from Kansas when they said, “Kansans have made a decision about separate schools for coloreds and if there is some other state that has a more lenient view than Kansas then maybe that’s a better place for them to live.”
Now he’s plagiarizing the late 20th-century anti-miscegenationists of Virginia when they said “That marriage is the union between a man and a woman of the same race is a truth known to each one of us already, and any attempt to allow mixed-race marriages is a detriment to the family unit and hurts our state and nation.”
Gov. Perry, your hate is tired and old and belongs back in the 20th century.
