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Today, while the President is posing in the Rose Garden with some of the country's most hateful bigots, a majority of the country opposes him.
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There was a time (and frighteningly, it wasn't so long ago) when straights supporting gay rights was about as prevalent as Republicans with a sense of humor. While many gays have been fighting tirelessly for their civil rights, it's been hard to enlist heterosexuals in the struggle.

For example, for years the National Organization of Women has been accused of homophobia, partly dating from co-founder Betty Friedan's open scorn of lesbians, and also from their recent support of homophobes such as Elizabeth Vargas. And straight men have been reluctant to support gays--it took a very confident man to do so at a time when people assumed that only gay men supported gay rights, which is one reason why Rob Reiner, Paul Newman, Tom Hanks, and Phil Donahue will always be heroes.

Things have changed, however. Today President Bush is announcing his plans to codify bias in the American Constitution by urging the Senate to vote for an amendment banning gay marriage. And across the country, in newspapers, on the radio, and around office water coolers everywhere, straight men and women are speaking out against it.

Part of this stems from the fact that a certain percentage of the public will speak out against everything Bush does. Part of this is due to the realization that if the religious far right gets its way here, its next step may be to institutionalize a ban on abortion, or divorce, or ways people can have sex in the bedroom--who knows where the far-right might stop.

But part of these protests arise from the growing realization by straight people that gay men and women aren't some ominous demographic they've never met. Gays are their sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, cousins, teachers, friends, bosses, assistants, and peers. Gays are the exact same people as straights, except when it comes to sex. And when Congress decides that it should legislate how Americans should act in the bedroom, this country is surely in a very bad place.

Today is both a day of shame and pride. On the one hand, President Bush's pandering to the far right is reprehensible, and it will be a major part of his historical legacy, just as Strom Thurmond, Trent Lott, and George Wallace's reputations will always be contaminated by their positions on civil rights.

In some ways, George Bush has been a blessing for gays. His biased and cynical actions have created a stage where straight people feel comfortable opposing his positions on gay rights. Today, while the President is posing in the Rose Garden with some of the country's most hateful bigots, a majority of the country opposes him. And finally, gays don't feel so alone.

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