Part II

Editors note:  This is  the second in a series of articles (Part I is here) about same sex marriage.  The author, Doug Mainwaring, is a principled conservative residing in Montgomery County, MD who is gay.  He is a cofounder of National Capital Tea Party Patriots and his commentaries regarding the Tea Party movement and conservative issues have appeared in The Washington Times, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, Wall Street Journal, American Thinker and others.

Over the last few weeks Doug testified in Annapolis before the Maryland Senate Judiciary Committee and the House of Delegates Joint Committee (Judiciary and Government Operations) Hearing in opposition to same sex marriage, and spent many days lobbying individual legislators as well.

The big question which this series seeks to answer is:  “Who is really behind the push for same sex marriage and what is their motivation?”  The answer may surprise you.

Here is a link to a recording of Gov. Martin O’Malley’s testimony and Doug’s opposing testimony before the Maryland Senate Judiciary Committee on January 31 regarding the Same Sex Marriage legislation.  (The Governor speaks during the first two minutes or so then Doug for the final 2 minutes — just click on “in this podcast”).

What’s the rush?

In late November, New York State Judge Robert Wiggins roundly criticized Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Administration for riding roughshod over the legislative process as it sought to bring about passage of same sex marriage legislation last June. “It is ironic that much of the state’s brief passionately spews sanctimonious verbiage on the separation of powers in the governmental branches, and clear arm-twisting by the Executive on the Legislative permeates this entire process.”

The New York Daily News reported: “In issuing what’s
known as a ‘message of necessity’ that allows for a quicker vote,
Cuomo had written that continued delay would deny more than
50,000 same-sex couples critical protections afforded to
heterosexual couples.

“‘Logically and clearly this cite by the governor is disingenuous,’
Wiggins wrote. “The review of such concept, altering legislation for three days
after generations of existing definitions, would not so damage same sex
couples as to necessitate an avoidance of rules meant to ensure full review
and discussion prior to any vote,” (Nov. 29, 2011).

In the half year since same sex marriage became law in New York, only a small fraction of those 50,000 have availed themselves of this right which the Governor swore was so urgent to establish. So why did New York’s Democratic Governor insist that same sex marriage is a vital interest to his state?

The heart of the issue is not concern for the welfare of gays and lesbians. Nor is the motivation to secure civil rights. The goal is to dilute the definition of marriage and in so doing, weaken the institution of marriage.

Statists see great value in slowly chipping away at the bedrock of American culture: Family life.    The more that familial bonds are weakened and religious beliefs are undermined both in our daily experience and as a matter of legality, the more Government is able to freely insert itself into our lives in an authoritarian way.

The meaning of marriage is immutable

Marriage is a term which belongs to the union of heterosexual couples. It cannot be arbitrarily applied to other relationships except in a metaphoric way. To bifurcate the term into “traditional marriage” and “gay marriage” is to cede reason and intellect beyond the bounds of our shared multi-millennial social compact.

Marriage is marriage — an immutable concept proven by society’s renewal from generation to generation. Marriage is not the same as other types of relationships. For thousands of years marriage has served as society’s building block. It is the framework for human existence that leads to human flourishing. At the outset of the 21st century we should not be so quick to redefine it.

Ensuring a better future for our children and grandchildren is more important than our generation’s desire to make history. Many landmark changes in our country’s laws have had unintended consequences with severe negative impacts on generations of children. For instance, no fault divorce and the expansion of the welfare state have diminished family life, especially for minorities and the poor, while multiplying the number of either broken homes or fatherless families. Nowadays, 40% of all births in the U.S. are to unwed parents. That number is stunning. More stunning is the fact that 70% of black children are born to unwed mothers. Doesn’t this indicate that our attention should be focused like a laser beam on strengthening, not redefining, marriage — an institution that has been unraveling for decades — to the detriment of children?

“If the state cannot uphold a traditional view of marriage
because it lacks the moral warrant to do so, how can it then, in turn,
uphold a controversial progressive view of marriage? . . . taken to
its logical conclusion, (this) seems to lead not to an acceptance of
same sex marriage, but to the abolition of a public recognition of
marriage altogether,” (John Locke and the Evangelical retreat from
Marriage, by Micah Watson, Public Discourse: Ethics, Law and
the Common Good).

Sound far fetched? White House “Regulation Czar,” Cass Sunstein, proposes an end to government recognition of marriage. “Under our proposal, the word marriage would no longer appear in any laws, and marriage licenses would no longer be offered or recognized by any level of government . . . . the only legal status states would confer on couples would be a civil union, which would be a domestic partnership agreement between any two people . . . Governments would not be asked to endorse any particular relationships by conferring on them the term marriage . . . “ (Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth and happiness, Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein, 2008.)

This is the (mostly) unstated objective of our nation’s liberal intelligentsia: The dissolu- tion of marriage altogether, through the progressive dismantling of the structures of family life, resulting in a higher dependency on government by individuals and struggling family units.

Could there be a more cynical proposition, divorced from tradition, religion and history? Think of it: With family ties weakened or obliterated, each individual’s most intimate, trusting relationships and authority figures would be the agencies of the government assigned to his or her care.

The gay community is not the driving force behind same sex marriage. Who is? Liberal elites who seek to engineer our society, who feel they could create a utopia if only people weren’t so tied to their families, to their religion, to their traditions and beliefs. These are the same folks who don’t care whether or not citizens enjoy a personal relationship with their doctors, who believe medical care should flow from and be controlled by govenment.

Those who seek sweeping transformational change are manipulating gays and lesbians to increase their own power and authority in all of our lives.

Next:  Suppression of opposition to redefining marriage by statists through organizations such as Equality Maryland and The Human Rights Campaign.

Editors note:  I will be away for a few days, Part III will be posted by Monday.  If you are commenting and don’t see your comments immediately, I will get to them as soon as I have access to a computer.

….have the same concerns as Christians about the public schools.

Here is an interesting article in the Washington Times from earlier this week about how Muslims have discovered home schooling and the freedom to practice their faith in America.

This is near the end of the piece:

Many Muslim parents seek a structured, morally based education for their children, even if it is not based on Islam.

“There are Muslim families that would feel more safe sending their children to a Christian school than a public school,” she said.

Ms. Ndiaye said that the Muslim home-school movement is still in its “infancy,” following the path blazed by evangelical Christian practitioners, who make up more than 70 percent of the U.S. home-school population.

Home-schoolers in general tend to excel academically, performing 15 to 30 percentile points higher on standardized tests than students in public schools, according to National Home Education Research Institute.

“The Muslims looked at that and said, ‘We can do those same things,’ ” she said.

Read it all.  It sure strikes me as a better idea then demanding that public schools accommodate religious practices as we are seeing in some locations—like here in Green Bay,Wisconsin.

Editors note:  This is  the first in a series of articles about same sex marriage.  The author, Doug Mainwaring, is a principled conservative residing in Montgomery County, MD who is gay.  He is a cofounder of National Capital Tea Party Patriots and his commentaries regarding the Tea Party movement and conservative issues have appeared in The Washington Times, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, Wall Street Journal, American Thinker and others.

Over the last few weeks Doug testified in Annapolis before the Maryland Senate Judiciary Committee and the House of Delegates Joint Committee (Judiciary and Government Operations) Hearing in opposition to same sex marriage, and spent many days lobbying individual legislators as well.

The big question which this series seeks to answer is:  “Who is really behind the push for same sex marriage and what is their motivation?”  The answer may surprise you.

Here is a link to a recording of Gov. Martin O’Malley’s testimony and Doug’s opposing testimony before the Maryland Senate Judiciary Committee on January 31 regarding the Same Sex Marriage legislation.  (The Governor speaks during the first two minutes or so then Doug for the final 2 minutes — just click on “in this podcast”).

Part I

Conflating the issues of same-sex marriage and gay rights

When did it become controversial not to support same sex marriage? And why is there now such an enormous push across our nation toward its normalization?

The national conversation about the issue of same sex marriage has been aggressively fused with the issue of gay rights. Many media commentators, politicians, and lobbyists easily conflate the two issues, promoting the notion among the general public that those who oppose same sex marriage are unsophisticated, bigoted and homophobic. This is a disingenuous impugnment: One can be completely supportive of gays while being opposed to gay marriage.

The issue of same sex marriage has been hijacked by politicians and ideologues in the interest of pursuing broader political gain.

Sadly, at the same time it also has been turned into a faux-civil rights issue, diminishing the meaning of the centuries-long struggle by Blacks for equality. If this truly were a matter of civil rights, President Obama would have unhesitatingly championed same sex marriage throughout his presidency, knowing that he is on the side of right. In the President’s own words his views on gay marriage are “evolving.” Why? Because his support is the product of complicated political calculations, not a heartfelt sense of justice.

The same holds true for Maryland’s Governor O’Malley. Until a few months ago, Governor Martin O’Malley was content to stay in the background on same sex marriage, clearly revealing that he does not view this as a legitimate civil rights issue. If he did, he would have been out in front of this on both a state and a national level long ago. His current vocal support is nothing more than treading safely in New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s larger footsteps, all in the name of political opportunism.

Judging by current statistics, a mandate to institute same sex marriage doesn’t exist — even among gays and lesbians. Not supposition, empirical fact.

Inflating numbers to win support

On November 10, I attended the US Senate Judiciary Committee’s meeting on the “Respect for Marriage Act” (S. 598), a bill which is intended to undo DOMA. At that hearing, Senator Diane Feinstein, author of the legislation, said, “There are 131,000 legally married same-sex couples.”  This was false.

2010 U.S. Census figures reveal that 131,729 same-sex couples checked “husband” or “wife” boxes on their census forms, but this gives a snapshot of the states of mind of these gay and lesbian couples, not a true picture of the actual number of legal same-sex marriages.

A Census Bureau consultant, Gary Gates of the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, puts the actual number of legally recognized gay partnerships at 100,000 — a number which reflects not the total number of same-sex marriages, but the sum of the number of marriages, plus civil unions plus domestic partnerships in the U.S.

In fact, according to a report issued by the Williams Institute in February: “Approximately 50,000 same-sex couples have married, based on the number of couples who have married in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, and New Hampshire, according to administrative data from those states, (including) estimates for same-sex couples marrying in California and the District of Columbia.”

At this point in time, the actual total number is probably between 55,000 and 60,000 U.S. same sex marriages. Senator Feinstein’s claim was inflated by more than 100%.

The statistics tell a different story

After the Supreme Court struck down sodomy laws in Lawrence v. Texas in 2003, attention immediately shifted to making same-sex marriage the moral and legal equivalent of heterosexual marriages. Was the shift due to a huge pent-up demand by gays to marry? If so, one would have expected massive stampedes to the departments of licensing in those states which have instituted same-sex marriage immediately after having become law. However, the mad dash to the altar by couples dressed in matching tuxedos or wedding dresses has never really materialized.

Heading into Sunday July 24, the first day that same-sex couples could legally wed in New York City, officials devised a lottery system to handle the projected 2,500 couples they thought would want to marry on that auspicious day. However, by the time the 48-hour lottery had closed on the preceding Thursday, only 823 couples had signed up, slightly less than one third (33%) of the anticipated demand. And of course that number is further diluted because it reflects the availability of same sex marriage not only to New Yorkers, but to anyone from another state.

In Massachusetts, more than 6,200 gay and lesbian couples were married during the first year that same sex couples were permitted to marry. That number dwindled to just 1,900 marriages the following year – about 5% of the total number of marriages performed in the state.

In Iowa, between April 2009 and March 2010, 2,020 same-sex couples were married, (about 10% of all marriages in Iowa during that time period). 815 couples were from Iowa (about 4% of all Iowa marriages), and the rest were mostly from surrounding states.

These statistics are not indicative of stampedes. With the number of same-sex couples now on a trajectory to cross over the one million mark, this means that only about 5 or 6% of same-sex couples have availed themselves of the ability to marry in this country. Further, if there are around ten million adult gays and lesbians in the US (about 3.5% of the population according to a Williams Institute Poll), then only about 1 in 100, or 1% have chosen marriage so far, statistically a fairly negligible amount. If the true number of gays and lesbians is closer to 10% of the population (as many have held for so long), then the number of gays choosing marriage is only 1 in 300, or about 0.3%. Wherever the actual percentage is on this spectrum, it seems that gay marriage is treated as far from mainstream even within the gay community.

Charitable giving by the LGBT community also tells a tale: The 2011 National LGBT Movement Report: A Financial Overview of Leading Advocacy Organizations in the LGBT Movement, (December 2011), states, “Even an optimistic estimate concludes that fewer than 3% of LGBT adults give to national LGBT organizations.” This means that more than 97% of self identified gays and lesbians haven’t made a financial donation toward the cause of same sex marriage. Since the Movement Advancement Project Report covers giving by gays and lesbians to all LGBT “social justice advocacy, legal, public education, research and academic organizations,” the actual percentage of gays and lesbians who have contributed specifically to same sex marriage efforts is far less than 3% of the LGBT Community.

As it turns out, the pent-up demand for same-sex marriage was never all that pent-up, and the demand in general for marriage among gays and lesbians appears to be quite anemic.

Since the gay community is not digging into its collective pockets to fund the battle to institute same sex marriage, and since gays and lesbians are not racing to get married, who then is actually behind the massive push for same-sex marriage in our country?

The answer, in Part II, involves true believers in the religion of big Government, such as White House Regulation Czar, Cass Sunstein.

The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, in a big hurry to get O’Malley’s gay marriage bill passed before anyone changes their mind, voted the bill out of committee and will be blocking efforts to amend it.  If it is amended, it would return to the House of Delegates where it very nearly failed last week.

Below is the Hagerstown Herald Mail on the story:

Maryland senators are unlikely to approve any amendments to a bill legalizing gay marriage, worried that if it heads back to the House of Delegates, it could be in trouble because the vote to pass it there was so close.

Members of the state Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee rejected two changes to the bill Tuesday, and proponents say they plan to do the same when the measure reaches the chamber floor later this week.

“A little bit of Wite-Out is the guillotine here. Don’t touch the bill if you support it,” Sen. Jamie Raskin, D-Montgomery, told committee members before they shot down changes that would have legalized civil unions and overruled an amendment made in the House last week.

The committee’s 7-4 vote — identical to one last year on a similar bill — moves the legislation to the full Senate, which is expected to take a final vote soon.

If it passes, both supporters and oponents expect the bill to be decided in a referendum in November.

There is more, read on.

Del. Neil Parrott is already gearing up to put a petition drive in place to allow the voters to decide this important issue at the ballot box—making for one more reason to get out the conservative vote in November.

Richard Falknor, writing at Blue Ridge Forum has a good post today on what this all means, here.

And, the Huffington Post has an article about Republican Del. Wade Kach and how he says he came to change his mind and vote for gay marriage.  The Dick Cheney surrogate supposed phone call sounds fishy to me.  Others have posited that he was offered a job by Governor O’Malley in exchange for his vote.  I don’t know if that has been confirmed.

This is a subject we know well here in Maryland, except here it was Governor O’Malley backed by a Court.

I like Rep. Bachmann and thought throughout the time she was in the Presidential campaign that at least if she didn’t make it, she would challenge the squishy House Republican leadership and be a continuous thorn in their side.  Now she has a tough slog ahead to even hold onto her seat.

This is from Michele in an e-mail just now:

Just as we suspected, the liberal courts have changed the makeup of Minnesota’s Congressional districts. The courts’ liberal bias was evident by cherrypicking the districts and going so far as to draw my home — where I have raised my family and represented in Congress for the past six years — outside the new sixth district.

She says she will run in her district anyway which includes some new areas. You may want to visit her website to see how you can help her.

Bachmann endeared herself to me because she is the only elected official I have ever seen raise the issue of Somali enclaves growing in certain sections of the US (an issue I have followed closely for 4 years).   Her district did (maybe still does) include large Somali populations—some came on their own from Minneapolis and more recently they have been resettled there by the US State Department to work in meatpacking.  The Somalis have caused much controversy especially as it relates to school and workplace demands for special religious accommodation, but more shockingly two Somali women in Minnesota were recently convicted in a terror financing case.  Bachmann actually had the you-know-whats to bring it up in a Presidential debate,  here.

If you have the stamina, you might want to wade through this post I wrote in 2010 about how hard Left agitators and the Somalis are working together for community “change” in St. Cloud, MN.

The US Supreme Court will hear arguments that week for and against the insurance mandate in Obamacare.   Americans for Prosperity is organizing a rally in Washington, DC on Tuesday,the 27th.  (Other groups will rally over the weekend preceding the 27th).

There are lots and lots of buses leaving from several East Coast states.  Three locations in Maryland will also be available for pick-up.  Please sign up here at Americans for Prosperity Maryland and show Washington that the Tea Party is alive and well. We know we are alive and well as we are working daily below the mainstream radar, but it would be good to have a show of strength with a rally in DC on this very critical issue for the future of America.

While we are all busy arguing over illegal immigration and how to combat it, the Obama administration is busy with backdoor amnesty.  One such program to legalize the illegals is quietly becoming increasingly popular— Temporary Protected Status (TPS)

Just recently TPS was extended for Salvadorans who have been here illegally for more than a decade.  We’ve also extended TPS for Haitians who got here illegally prior to the earthquake.  And, now in light of the turmoil in Syria, an open borders cabal* is asking for TPS for Syrians.

The basic idea behind TPS is that those who are in the country illegally, or whose Visas might expire are allowed to stay and WORK in the US because it would be a hardship on their country (and the illegals themselves) to send them back to a country that is a mess for some reason.

However, the way things are going, this administration would have a good excuse not to deport illegals back to almost any country in the world for some reason.

Now we learn that Guatemala wants TPS for its people here too—because of heavy rains related to tropical storm Agatha nearly two years ago!

Here is the story:

Guatemala, Feb 20 (Prensa Latina) Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala, Harold Caballeros, will travel to Washington on Tuesday to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said an official source.

With his U.S. counterpart, Caballeros will discuss issues related to the proposal of his President, Otto Perez Molina, to decriminalize drugs, an initiative already rejected by Washington. Caballeros will also reiterate for the third time, the request to grant Temporary Protected Status to Guatemalans living in the US without documentation, to avoid deportation.

This condition was first requested by the previous administration of Alvaro Colom following the devastation caused to this nation in 2010 by heavy rains mainly associated with tropical storm Agatha and other adverse weather conditions.

By the way, Guatemalans make up the second largest group of Central Americans in the US (behind the largest group—Salvadorans).  Check out the numbers here at wikipedia.  Many came in illegally with the sanctuary movement of the religious Left that included Catholic and Quaker “sanctuary” workers (I told you all about that here).  In fact, one leading Quaker activist started CASA de Maryland in a church in Takoma Park, MD—Betty Rainbow Hoover.

Do you know why Guatemalan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Harold Caballeros, is so anxious for illegal Guatemalan’s to be able to stay in the US and WORK—so they can send legal remittances back to Guatemala to prop up that country.  American workers are s****** so US dollars can go back to Guatemala.  So much for immigrants working and fueling our economy!

Once again, please stop saying “Illegal immigration is bad, but legal immigration is good!”

* The gang urging Syrian TPS:

United for a Free Syria (UFS), in close coordination with a broad coalition including the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), Syrian Expatriates Organization (SEO), Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), Syrian Americans for Democracy (SAD), South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), and Refugee Council USA (RCUSA).

Update:  The Administration had been touting an 8.3% unemployment rate recently but Gallup is now reporting it is likely to rise to 9% when new figures come out in early March, here.

Note:  I prematurely posted this with an incorrect name of the author.  It is correct now:  John Hayward!

That is what John Hayward says writing at Human Events yesterday.

Hayward explains that what is happening is that the workforce is shrinking—people are giving up looking for work and are being propped up by the extension of unemployment benefits and other government social “safety net” programs such as food stamps and thus the Obama Labor Department is able to make it appear that the unemployment rate is falling.

We’ve heard this before, and we know it, but this is a concise explanation of what is happening.

Here is one little excerpt from Hayward’s piece:

Since the concept of people who aren’t looking for work is so fluid, and some of those people have clearly been persuaded not to look for work because of job-destroying government policies, it might be more logical to measure unemployment using the standard incorrectly offered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the U-3 rate: “total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force.”  That’s what the U-3 rate claims to measure, but it doesn’t, not by a long shot.

What is the current percentage of working-age Americans, eligible to participate in the civilian labor force, but not currently working?  Answer: 36.3 percent.

That’s the worst labor participation rate in three decades, and it’s part of the worst employment picture we’ve seen since the Great Depression.

Read it all, here.

Every blogger has his or her own way of managing posts and comments.  Here at Potomac Tea Party Report, I post whenever I feel moved to write about something and have the time.  Unfortunately, on some days or whole weekends I have pressing things going on and simply can’t find time to post and unfortunately then some very interesting news just passes me by.  I just can’t get to it all.

As for commenting, I moderate comments.  That means that I see the comment before I actually post it.  So, if I’m off somewhere for a few hours or a few days you may not see your comment right away.  Although wordpress takes it upon itself to sort out spam (and makes mistakes sometimes, sorry about that), I usually post everything everyone sends me as soon as I am back at the computer.

And, the comments are just posted all at once so sometimes it might mess up the back and forth commentary.

There are a couple of reasons why I might not post a comment.  I don’t post anything with foul language and I really hate it when commenters personally attack one another.  Just tell us your views on the issue being discussed (you can do it strongly and enthusiastically), but keep it respectful.    I haven’t had the problem here, but I’ve been writing another blog since 2007 where those commenting are pretty rough people and I have actually had to ban people from commenting —usually liberals telling someone they are a “racist” or something like that.   LOL! Liberals must have gone to name-calling school and are under the false assumption that to silence someone with whom one disagrees, simply scream the “R” word.

And, one final thing.  I’m not good at commenting myself (slow thinker maybe!), so I don’t often say much.  But, please comment to each other!  We can all learn something from the exchange.

Thanks!  Ann

p.s. You too can be a blogger, it isn’t hard and we need many many more because we want to get around the mainstream media filter!  Frankly, educating more citizens is the only hope we have.

This is from a piece in the Washington Times a month ago today (I just saw it thanks to Lynn) and I think it lays out very well why Paul has such an enthusiastic following.   And, frankly for me, the piece comes just as we are likely to insert ourselves in Syria—into the Shia vs. Sunni Islam wars that have gone on for centuries. (McCain wants to arm the “rebels.”)  We did such a great job (I’m being sarcastic of course) helping to “liberate” Egypt and Libya and thus helping the Muslim Brotherhood come to power in the name of “democracy” we are now seriously contemplating going for number three—Syria—or four or five, but who is counting.

And, then consider what author, Amanda Read, has to say about Paul on the domestic side:

At this point I have to ask – why are Republicans naturally so hesitant about endorsing Paul for the presidency? However much we may detest the party establishment, there is a comfort and stability in the familiarity of it. Who wants to trek through wilderness to the promised land when the fantasy of going back to reform Egypt seems so much easier?

Arguably, Romney and Gingrich would be better presidents than Obama, and Santorum might be even better. Each of them would slow down the speedy decline Obama has the country on. But they all function within the play-it-safe Republican paradigm of recent days. In other words, they tend to treat our unconstitutionally big government as tolerable and permissible as long as moral, traditional conservatives are in charge of it.

Paul, on the other hand, condemns the status quo as ineffective and improper for America no matter who happens to be running it. His record and message are consistent no matter what audience or congress he happens to be speaking to. Paul understands and articulates the constitutional precepts of limited federal government better than any other candidate, and knows what sort of bold action it will take to get the United States out of debt.

Read it all.

Of course, I can’t predict how this campaign will end (we could be surprised), but know that in Maryland while everyone in the establishment is primarily talking to each other in their little ‘smart people’ circles about Romney,  Ron Paul supporters are quietly going to the voters one by one.