Tuesday, October 14, 2003

Hate Week: President Bush has proclaimed October 12 through 18 to be Marriage Protection Week and declared marriage as "a union between a man and a woman."

Of course, we all know the only "protection" conservatives think marriage needs is from homosexuals, who are seeking the same legal protection for their lifelong relationships that heterosexuals receive.

What's interesting about the timing of this is that October 12 is also the anniversary of the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay man who was beaten to death by two homophobes.

As blogger August J. Pollack pointed out, Bush has a history of tying policy statements to anniversaries:

Just as President Bush gave a speech condemning Affirmative Action on Martin Luther King Day and declared the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision "National Sanctity of Life Day," this is, of course, a complete coincidence.

This is a shameful act on the part of President Bush. Some fire-breathing conservatives have been applauding Shepard's murder, saying that he is burning in hell for being gay. Of course they are making that conclusion from the same Bible that says you'll go to hell for eating shellfish, but you don't see them burning down Red Lobster in protest.

It could just be that the people who wrote the Old Testament accidentally slipped in their own personal prejudices as they were jotting down what God was telling them. Divine inspiration or no, we are not God, and we have no right to judge others whose lives we may disagree with, but nonetheless are causing no harm to others. Bush's marking the anniversary of Shepard's death by promoting an anti-gay agenda is reprehensible.

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