The anti-gay collapse
The American South is having another George Wallace moment. Angered by the U.S. Supreme Court legalizing same- sex marriage and the fact that Bruce Jenner is now a woman, the old segregation states have been falling over each other passing deviously conceived laws in an effort to hold back tide waters that have already rolled in.
But they have been rudely surprised. The pushback against this fever of anti-gay legislation has been staggering. States like Missouri and North Carolina are being slapped down not by effete Hollywood elites, but by their heroes: corporate America, Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Buffett and the NBA.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McRory, who must have thought he had engineered an irresistible wedge issue for the fall election cycle, instead finds himself trying to explain legislation that is costing his state thousands of jobs and untold millions of dollars. By Tuesday, his climbdown reached a new humiliating low when he offered to respect any court action that struck his law down. Consider that for a moment: a conservative Republican effectively begging “activist judges” to strike down a law he enthusiastically signed one month ago.
And let’s be clear here: these laws are anti-gay. They’re dressed up as issues of public safety and basic liberty, but they’re simply a mendacious means of trying to beat back the progress of the modern gay movement.
The laws take two forms. The first works under the pretext of protecting religious freedom. The pretence is that forcing a baker to make a cake for the wedding of Adam and Steve is an abrogation of religious conscience. Now here’s the funny thing: unlike the Tea Party crowd I really am a libertarian. So go ahead and decline customers, but please put a sign in the window spelling out whom you refuse to do business with. I’m pretty sure there aren’t enough righteous gluttons to sustain a bakery with a sign reading “We don’t serve gays.”
The second form hinges on a panicky subterfuge about the safety of washrooms. We are told that allowing people to use facilities that correspond to their gender identity is a free pass to perverts to put on drag and hit the ladies locker room. In an open letter to Bruce Springsteen after he cancelled a concert in Greensboro in protest of North Carolina’s new bathroom laws, Pastor Michael Brown asked the rocker how he would feel if his granddaughter found herself in a bathroom with a 6’4” former professional football player who has decided to be a woman.
“Do you think it might be traumatic for a little girl using the library bathroom to see this big man walk into her room wearing a dress and a wig?” he writes, “Should we take her feelings into account, or is she not important?”
Of course this isn’t an abstract thought exercise. I might ask the good reverend if he wants to share a washroom with Caitlyn Jenner? Or would he be comfortable with his wife sharing a locker room with Men’s Health cover model Ben Melzer (pic- tured below), who was born a woman?
I’m not without sympathy for those who feel ambushed by the times. When the No. 1 male athlete of the 1970s decides at the age of 65 that he’s a woman — and a shallow, preening one at that — it’s a weird moment for America. And the incredible velocity of change in terms of the normalization of gays and lesbians is admittedly breathtaking. The Defense of Marriage Act defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman was passed in 1996 and at the time it had the support of Barack Obama and both Clintons. Today the CEO of the largest company in the world (Apple) is publicly gay. The most popular daytime television host is a woman married to a woman. And a retired baseball star turned sports pundit was fired from ESPN for sharing an antitrans meme on Facebook.
LBGT activists have revelled perhaps a bit too much in their triumphs, exacting a form of gleeful revenge on their squirming political opponents. But there is no turning back the clock. And you can’t contend that hate or squeamishness deserve the protection of the state.
George Wallace recanted his anti- black sentiments in his final years and begged for forgiveness. That’s what happens when you stand against liberty. In the case of the current spasm of legislation in the southern states, the retreat likely won’t take decades. Thanks to corporate pressure and the immediacy of the Internet, the governors and statehouses appear already to be seized with regret.
What’s needed now for those who find themselves out of phase with the new times is a chance to climb down without recrimination. The enemies of progress are surrendering. They should be shown mercy.
A CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR IS, IN ESSENCE, BEGGING ‘ACTIVIST JUDGES’ TO STRIKE DOWN A LAW HE HAPPILY SIGNED ONE MONTH AGO.