This page was last updated on October 11, 2013.
Gov. Corbett is out of touch; Beaver County Times; October 10, 2013.
Below is a detailed critique of this column.
“Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett reached a new low Friday when, in an interview with Harrisburg’s WHP-TV, he compared same-sex marriage to the marriage of siblings.”
[RWC] Keep in mind any non-leftist “is out of touch” in the eyes of the BCT.
“His comment was spurred when the interviewer asked him about a previous statement made by a member of his legal staff that compared same-sex marriage to the union of 12-year-olds, attempting to point out that both marriages are illegal. Corbett stated that he disagreed with the analogy made by his staff member and offered incest as a better example.
“The governor later apologized for his comment, claiming that he did not mean to offend anyone, but rather to illuminate his perspective on state and federal laws regarding marriage.
“‘Gov. Corbett’s comments aren’t simply offensive; they’re out of touch,’ Equability [sic] Pennsylvania, an equal rights group, said in a prepared statement. The organization is right — the governor’s statement is not just insulting, it is inaccurate.”
[RWC] The correct name is Equality Pennsylvania. The editorial called EP “an equal rights group,” but EP’s description of itself is a tad narrower. According to its website, “Equality Pennsylvania is the commonwealth’s leading organization advancing equality and opportunity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Pennsylvanians.” Look deeper and you find EP is just another lefty activist group exploiting a “victim” group.
“While Corbett is certainly entitled to his interpretation of the state law, his archaic comments are very telling of the low level of sensitivity that he is willing to grant to his constituents. And above legal speculation, the reality is that the leader of this state believes that the union of two women or two men is akin to incest — a completely unrealistic analogy that ignores and undermines the significant progress that this country has made toward equal rights.
“The political discussion that surrounds same-sex marriage in Pennsylvania needs to evolve.”
[RWC] Translation: Everyone who defines marriage as being between a man and a woman – regardless of their sexual orientation – needs to change and accept same-sex “marriage.”
“The concept of creating analogies to describe the legality of marriage is offensive, and it needs to stop to avoid this stalemate decision. When discussion of same-sex marriage arises, we are talking about people, about families and about the individuals that make up our state.
“On the most basic level, the topic deserves a level of respect that it is obviously not receiving.”
[RWC] As in the BCT editorial “Scouts should stop playing straight?”
“Citizens of Pennsylvania should take a lesson for the spectacle that has become our state government. Same-sex marriage is not a question of if, it is a question of when.”
[RWC] As I noted in a previous editorial critique, “As of August 2012, 31 states have constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriages, including left-of-the-left California. All but two of those states passed their amendments since 2000 and, with a few exceptions, they all passed with approval votes in excess of 60%, including some in the high 70s and 80s.”
“By clinging onto antiquated ideas of marriage and ignoring the importance of equality, we are harming the progress of this state.”
[RWC] What are those “antiquated ideas of marriage?” We also need the BCT definitions of “equality” and “progress.”
If we’re on the slippery slope of redefining marriage, it may be time for government to get out of the marriage business completely and leave it exclusively in the realm of a religious practice. All government has to do is remove all mention of marriage from our laws and regulations. For example, no marriage licenses, no performing marriages, no special (good or bad) tax treatment (everyone’s an individual), and so on.
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