Lowlights & Highlights: June 9, 2012

For all of the positive stories that I have mentioned where it looks like the next generation will be far more friendly to and accepting of their fellow citizens that are LGBT, there are still stories where not all of the kids are alright. This week, a 14 year old with a radio show made the claim that President Obama is making kids gay. He mentions friends he had who weren't gay then (I suppose in his inaccurate estimation) "decided" to be gay.

First, who the Hell gave this kid a radio show? He sounds like a Rush Limbaugh in training. All he needs is a drug habit, a few failed marriages, and some more inches on his waistline and he'll be right there.

Okay, I'll get serious. I want to point out a larger bit of hypocrisy here. There are many on the right who think that liberals, gays, and so forth are trying to "brainwash" youth into being gay. Nevermind the fact that one's sexual orientation is NOT a choice (although that should not be forgotten), it is clear that this kid has been brainwashed into thinking that sexual orientation IS a choice. Despite all existing and reputable evidence to the contrary, this child is spitting out many talking points that we hear from the likes of Bryan Fischer (President of the so-called American Family Association), Peter Sprigg (of the so-called Family Research Council), and Matt Barber (from the Liberty Council). It should be noted that all of these people are leaders of hate groups.

This host suffers from a major perception problem in that he can not or will not see things from the perspective of others. In his mind, these kids weren't gay, then they decided to be gay. The reality, having been there myself, is that they weren't openly gay, then they eventually came out. In other words, they were gay all along. That is something this ignorant child refuses to comprehend.

Luckily this kid is largely the exception and not the rule. I would rather focus on the kids like the junior high students that I linked to a while back who were fighting against Amendment One in North Carolina. They are the real future.

P.S. I asked the radio host last night via Twitter why someone would choose to be gay in the face of so much societal homophobia. I have yet to get an answer.

UPDATE: Caiden Cowger's radio show has been pulled from the air.

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Another week, another court ruling against the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. This one comes from New York. The couple met almost 50 years ago. They married in a jurisdiction that had marriage equality in 2009. Later that year one of them passed away and the other had to pay well of $300,000 in federal estate tax because of DoMA. The suit was filed in early 2010. The court ruled DoMA unconstitutional,  particularly section 3 which is where marriage is defined as the union of one man and one woman. The trend seems to be that when faced with DoMA, courts are saying that the law violates the United States Constitution. In the last edition of this column, I wrote about another such ruling out of California and the Ninth Federal District Court.

I have to note some irony. One of the things that the court said was that DoMA infringes upon states' rights in regulating domestic relations. Usually it is the politic right that is up in arms screaming about states' rights and denouncing big government. Here however, big government is exactly what they are championing.

I have mentioned this before, but I will say it again. Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner (R-OH) is spending at the very least $1,500,000 of taxpayer money to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court since the Obama Administration has (rightly) refused to do so on the grounds that they believe the law is unconstitutional. It looks like the courts agree with Obama and John Boehner is wasting tax dollars. So much for fiscal conservatism AND, for that matter, less government intrusion in people's lives.