Celebrating National Marriage Week: Day 3, our unfortunate leaders

Day three of National Marriage Week in Wisconsin focuses on our elected leaders, and the harm their policies have done to gays and lesbians in the state.

Governor Scott Walker, during his tenure as Milwaukee County Executive, vetoed a measure that would have simply studied the idea of domestic partnership benefits for county employees. Eye on Wisconsin rightly called the act “blowing a right wing dog whistle” while campaigning for the Republican nomination for governor. Putting politics over people accounts for many rungs on Walker’s career ladder.

Emily Mills notes the hardships Walker and his ilk inflict on the citizens of Wisconsin “…by spreading a message of discrimination and rejection that bleeds through society as a whole.”

During Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch’s campaign, she compared Wisconsin’s domestic partner registry to allowing people to marry dogs. The registry only grants couples roughly one-fifth the rights of a married couple, but a reasonable assessment of the registry clearly isn’t capable given Kleefisch’s rhetoric. Her social positions are so extreme when she became Walker’s running mate, her “issues” page was taken down and became a link to Walker’s, which featured no overt anti-gay sentiment.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald brags on his campaign website about being “lead author of the constitutional amendment…defining and protecting marriage in Wisconsin as a union between one man and one woman.” That unfortunate amendment is nothing but an example of all the bad democracy can accomplish.

Steve Hanson at Uppity Wisconsin notes “Julaine Appling and her group [Wisconsin Family Council] have not been satisfied with denying marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples in the state, but are now also fighting the ability of couples to have other legal rights if they are state employees.” WFC will find a willing partner in Governor Walker. The camps appear to be buddy-buddy, if Appling’s praise of Walker’s economic agenda is any evidence.

At this point it should be clear that Republicans in Wisconsin value anti-gay discrimination as an asset on the campaign trail.

Join the celebration — National Marriage Week, For Everyone.

Celebrating National Marriage Week: Day 2

It is now day two of the eight day National Marriage Week. To clarify, the group behind National Marriage Week doesn’t seem to have a anti-gay or far right agenda, other than offering strictly right-wing sources on their newsroom page. They are not very scientific in their pronouncements, but a cursory view of the site doesn’t reveal anything in the way of hate.

The problem is with the Wisconsin Family Councils of the world latching on, groups promoting hate under the guise of “values.” These self-described “values” groups align themselves with Republicans, who preach a mantra of limited government. However these groups advocate a government rooted in their own personal morality, which is anything but limited government.

The advocacy arm of WFC, Wisconsin Family Action, advocates “religious freedom,” but that’s the only kind of freedom they advocate. Given their way the group would ban gambling, pornography and stem-cell research and take away woman’s right to choose. So much for limited government.

Limited government is not legislating who may marry who. After a court ruling in favor of Wisconsin’s unfortunate ban on gay marriage and civil unions, Julaine Appling, president of WFC says, “We are even more committed to defending marriage” as if  she were part of a noble battle. Ms. Appling is only serving to oppress gay and lesbian people across our state who only want what she thinks she advocates — the benefits of marriage.

If you don’t like gay marriage, don’t get gay married. And if you have a blog, or if you twitter, join me in celebrating National Marriage Week, for everyone. Spread the word about the right-wing’s hypocrisy on limited government and marriage. Blogging Blue, Whallah, Illusory Tenant and Blue Cheddar are all doing it.

Celebrating National Marriage Week

I hope you’ll join me, along with hate monger Julaine Appling, president of hate mongers Wisconsin Family Council, in celebrating National Marriage Week this week.

Governor Scott Walker is celebrating. In fact, he issued a National Marriage Week proclamation at the request of aforementioned hate mongers.

Of course this blog and the governor’s hate crew will be celebrating National Marriage Week for different reasons. Pretty Important is of the belief that two people who want to marry should be able to marry, regardless of gender. We believe the Constitution of the United States of America requires that blind eye toward gender if the government is to be involved in marriage at all.

Wisconsin Family Council/Action (depending if they are overtly lobbying for discrimination, or not so much) are using National Marriage Week to promote their hateful, anti-gay “values.” Appling touts the benefits of a stable marriage with blinding ignorance to the feasibility of such a setup. Apparently unfamiliar with “correlation does not equal causation” Appling offers scenarios in which individuals and society as a whole are better served via traditional marriage while disregarding all other mitigating circumstances.

The most feeble-minded statement is a figure on the amount spent in America (supposedly $112 billion) on “unwed childbearing.” Appling neglects to clarify if that is money spent privately or by the government, or if the expenditure would be made regardless, given 100% “wed childbearing.”

Of course we shouldn’t expect too much intelligent thought from these people. National Marriage Week runs February 7-14… 8 days.

Happy National Marriage Week for everybody, everybody!

Planned Parenthood Advocates endorse Tom Barrett while WI Family Action and Craig Fletcher bleed hypocrisy

I’m a few days late on this one, but how about some good news regarding the anniversary of Griswold v. Connecticut? (Cf: Pro-Life Wisconsin’s attack on freedom) Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin endorses Tom Barrett for Governor as “the only Wisconsin Gubernatorial candidate supporting birth control access.” The PPAWI release notes GOP candidates Walker and Neumann’s extreme positions of sponsoring and voting in favor of anti-women, anti-choice legislation.

Elsewhere, Craig Fletcher, running for the seat Tom Nelson will be vacating for his Lt. Governor run received the endorsement of the Wisconsin Family Action PAC. WFA has a history of advocating against freedom on many issues — marriage, education, and of course the right to make a decision regarding one’s own body. But the Fletcher campaign has issued another press release today: “Fletcher supports personal choice — auto title loans.”

Nice to see the Wisconsin Family Action and Craig Fletcher are willing to go so far to protect liberty and freedom — for the payday lending industry.  Fletcher’s release claims citizens “need to be concerned with this attack on businesses and personal rights” and laments the governor “can take away the consumers’ rights to use their personal property as they see fit.”

Fletcher bleeds hypocrisy. Wisconsin Family Action and the Fletchers of the state are not interested in freedom or liberty if the government is willing to regulate an issue that offends their moral sensibilities. Isn’t a woman’s self-determination with her body at least as important as “rights to…personal property?”

Despite their efforts to convince you otherwise, the GOP and anti-choice right do not have a stranglehold on liberty. Far from it.

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Also, just up is the PPAWI state legislature incumbent endorsements. List here.

Everything I hate about conservatism found in WI Family Action’s response to Healthy Youth Act

The aspect of conservatism I find most repulsive is the blatant hypocrisy. The nature of politics is give-and-take, ideology and application are never completely in sync. However the philosophy of limited government espoused by conservatives, coupled with relentless legislation based in morality is ridiculous.

When the Healthy Youth Act (prohibiting disastrous abstinence-only sex education) passed the Senate, conservative organization Wisconsin Family Action issued a press release stating;

“The bill’s ‘government knows best’ attitude is the root of the problem.”

Yet Wisconsin Family Action advocates legislation prohibiting a woman’s right to choose. The ability to freely make decisions regarding one’s own body is a basic tenet of individual freedom, a government interfering is not limited.

Another aspect of conservatism I detest is the lies.

Appling (WFA president) claims “comprehensive sex ed” is “misnamed.” Comprehensive is defined as: inclusive, broad, of large scope. Appling’s preference of abstinence is included in a broad array of methods to prevent pregnancy. The narrow scope of abstinence-only is clear.

The lies continue when Appling calls the bill;

“Decidedly unhealthy for our young people.”

“Unhealthy” is allowing schools to maintain failed policies that do not prevent teen pregnancy or infection when the schools could just as easily do something to reduce these threats to our youth.

Hypocrisy returns when near the end the WFA press release states;

“West Allis currently has a two-track program—an abstinence-centered track and a comprehensive sex ed track.”

The statement acknowledges a lack of “comprehensiveness” in sex ed programs that teach only abstinence, on the same page “comprehensive sex ed” is declared “misnamed.”

Limited government is not compatible with legislating into illegality any activity one finds disagreeable. Yet the conservative base of the Republican Party wishes to continue a policy preventing gays from defending their country in the armed forces and refuse women choice with their own bodies. They fight to keep Wisconsin’s youth ignorant in the name of morality. There is nothing conservative about these conservatives.

Wisconsin Family Action is no friend of liberty

State employees are now able to insure their domestic partners regardless of gender or marital status. The insurance comes at significant cost to the employee as the federal government treats the benefits as taxable income, but Julaine Appling of Wisconsin Family Action claims to be concerned about the cost to the state, saying;

“It’s unfortunate at a time of great economic crisis it’s going to cost taxpayers more to give these employees special benefits.”

Appling is wrong multiple counts.

These are not special benefits, merely equal benefits that would apply to any married couple.

The state of the economy has no bearing on Appling or her hateful organization’s opposition to shared benefits.

Equal protection under the law is never unfortunate.

Although Wisconsin Family Action’s website proclaims the virtues of “life and liberty” without the caveat “for straight people only” the group will attack any advancement in the civil rights of gay citizens. The group goes beyond advocating “traditional marriage” to actively oppose a system of benefits that attempts to provide equity yet still costs a gay couple more than a married couple. When “married couple” does not inherently signify heterosexuality, Wisconsin will be one step closer to liberty.

But liberty is a concept selectively applied by WFA. They state “pornography…must be controlled by the government,” “we oppose stem-cell research” and “the expansion of casinos.”

Liberty is neither practiced or achieved by imposing government regulation on every action that offends someones sensibilities.

The lesson is, Wisconsin Family Action is no friend of liberty and Scott Walker isn’t the only person who will oppose equal rights under the guise of recession.