For the last three election cycles, Republicans have been heavily using gay marriage as a wedge issue to encourage anti-gay individuals to turn out to vote. President Bush is using it again, in response to an October 25th New Jersey Supreme Court ruling that gay couples are entitled to the same legal rights and financial benefits as heterosexual couples, even if their unions may or may not be called marriage- a decision they left to legislators. While it mandates civil unions and not necessarily “gay marriage”, the subtlety was lost on Bush.

Bush has now included comments on this issue in his standard stump speech. In Iowa, he said: “Yesterday in New Jersey, we had another activist court issue a ruling that raises doubts about the institution of marriage. Marriage is a union between a man and a woman. I believe it’s a sacred institution that is critical to the health of our society and the well-being of families, and it must be defended.”

What does not get explained is how civil unions that protect the legal rights of gays and lesbians in committed relationships somehow threaten the institution of marriage. They can legally adopt children in most states and can give birth to or father children. It seems that a stable home life with the basic legal protections that marriage offers would protect the children. How that possibly hurts marriage is beyond baffling.

I suppose that it does not have to make any sense. Gays are the last acceptable refuge for unthinking hate. The president cautions us not to hate Muslims, but gays are perfectly fine targets for stirring up undefined fears and threats.  

Bush is not the only one. Senator George Allen, in a closely watched Senate race in Virginia, he is running an ad that states: “This Election Day you’ll have the opportunity to stand up to the [Democratic opponent] Jim Webbs of the world, to the people who want to weaken marriage. Jim Webb, Hillary Clinton and their liberal allies in Washington don’t want to give constitutional protection to traditional marriage. If they don’t share our values on something as basic as marriage, how can we trust them on any issue?”  

Now how in the world is marriage not protected by the constitution? How does not endorsing a badly worded state ban on gay marriage weaken marriage? Webb is actually opposed to gay marriage, but does feel that civil unions recognize the reality of many people’s lives. Again, rationality and the details matter little. The gays are coming, and they will ruin your marriage. Don’t ask how, just be angry and afraid. Hate them- they want to destroy what is most precious to you and society- marriage.

Throughout our history as a nation, the fear that some group might be given rights and destroy us has been used as a political wedge. It used to be blacks. For a time it was crazy radical women who liked to wear pants, the only ones you could expect to actually vote, and then when guaranteed equal rights they would force themselves into men’s bathrooms. These arguments have always been irrational, always steeped in prejudice and unthinking fear, and ultimately, given time, always fade away. At the time, though, they were powerful political tools.

Today, it’s the gays. When the inevitable happens and society finally admits they need legal protections for their families just like straight people, and the world does not end, I wonder who will be next to target? Old prejudices do eventually die out, but the need for fear and hatred never seems to.

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