On January 31st, one of the daughters of former President George W. Bush, Barbara Bush, appeared in a video for New Yorkers for Marriage Equality in support of gay marriage. In the video, a project of the Human Rights Campaign, Barbara Bush endorses full marriage equality and claims that, "everyone should have the right to marry the person that they love." George W Bush was caught muttering under his breath, "Leave it to the brown haired one to be into lesbians." Okay, that last part didn't happen, but you can bet W choked on his Coors beer when he saw the video. After all, he did push for a constitutional amendment banning gay unions. (On a side note, I theorize W drinks Coors for two reasons. 1) because Coors funds anti-gay propaganda and 2) because Coors is an awful beer and W suffers from a lack of judgment.)
Barbara Bush is one of an increasing number of Republicans coming out in support of gay marriage. The list includes former Vice-President Dick Cheney, former United States Solicitor General Ted Olson, and former First Lady Laura Bush.
All I can say is, finally, finally, finally. The conservative Tea Party movement must be livid at Republicans for breaking rank from the established position of their spiritual leader. No, not Jesus, Sarah Palin. I bet if Sarah Palin passed out at a house party and someone drew a vagina on her face with a black sharpie, she'd rub bleach on her face just to make sure the 'gay gene' didn't infect her.
I don't understand why anyone opposes gay marriage. Opposing gay marriage doesn't make sense because gay people will be allowed to marry sooner or later regardless. Sure, the progress isn't as fast as I would like, but as the Swiss philosopher Henri Frederic Amiel once said, "A thousand things advance; nine hundred and ninety-nine retreat; that is progress." The United States is built on progress, that is what makes us great, or at least gives us the potential for greatness. Remember, we used to be a nation full of slaves. When the American people demand change, change comes. Back in the 1990s, we demanded a pizza with cheese in the crust, and dammit, we got pizza with cheese in the crust. That is real progress.
As recently as the 1960s, it was illegal for a black person to marry a white person in America. The 1883 Supreme Court case Pace v Alabama established the constitutionality of anti-miscegenation laws by claiming that since whites and blacks were punished in equal measure for breaking the law against interracial marriage, it did not violate the 14th Amendment. I wish I could have used that logic in high school. I would have cheated on my math AND English tests and it wouldn't have been wrong because I was treating every subject the same. It wasn't until the Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia in 1967 that the ban on interracial marriage was lifted. And now you don't hear any political pundits railing on the evils of whites marrying blacks because, as we all know, interracial babies are the cutest babies in the world.
My point is just that 100 years ago it seemed unfathomable to some that white people and black people would be allowed to marry. But they can. Now those same people argue that one gay person can never marry another gay person. But they will. There are too many people committed to change. Stop fighting something that is bound to happen.
The walls of homophobia are already being torn down in the United States. On December 19th, 2010, "don't ask, don't tell" was repealed by the Senate, and gays will be able to serve openly in the U.S. military for the first time ever.
Barbara Bush came out in support of gay marriage because there is no good way to argue against it. The most popular argument of course is that the Bible says it's wrong. But it wasn't until the last few hundred years that anyone even brought up this argument. As the historian John Boswell argued in his book Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality, the Roman Catholic Church had not condemned gay people throughout its history and, in fact, actually celebrated love between men at times.
Other people argue that being gay is a choice. Even if it is, so what? Aren't we a nation founded on the right to choose? You can't deny someone basic rights because they choose something you don't like. I hate artichokes. I really do. I want to ban people who eat artichokes from having the right to peaceably assemble together, but unfortunately, my family insists on eating that devil vegetable in front of me.
So thank you Barbara Bush for supporting gay marriage. You just became the better twin in my book.