Homophobe to give Democratic response to State of the Union

On the unlikely chance that you thought there was any value left in the Democratic party after today, we have a homophobe giving the Democratic response to the State of the Union tomorrow.

This is so bad, I'm going to break my rule about not linking to the Washington Blade:

A spokesman for Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine clarified today that he opposes the scope of the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage working its way quicklty through the Virginia legislature, but will nonetheless sign the measure as written if it is adopted, putting it to a referendum.

Ah, so Kaine was for civil rights before he was against it.

Gay and lesbian couples already have difficulty finding courts that will provide protective orders in domestic violence cases, she said. If the amendment is approved in November, the few jurisdictions and judges that do offer protections will likely stop, she predicted. Ruble declined to name the jurisdictions because she feared they could be targeted.

Anti-marriage constitutional amendments have been used to challenge custody agreements, domestic violence laws and health benefits for public employees in several states.

Carrie Evans of the Human Rights Campaign said Virginia's Marriage Affirmation Act of 2004, which prohibits partnership contracts between same-sex couples, could be used to invalidate custody agreements or advance medical directives.

It is doubtful that Virginia's constitutional amendment would affect those types of contracts, she said. However, there are many protections left vulnerable to the amendment, like domestic violence laws and health benefits for public employees, she added.

It's one thing for the governor to be worried about being "for" gay marriage in Virginia, the state that brought us miscegenation laws. It's quite another for the governor to not understand the difference between gay marriage and an amendment that rips away all legal protections from gay couples, gay employees, and their children.

The new breed of Democrat can't handle the concept of nuance. They can't handle the concept of some things being difficult to oppose, and other things being easy. Yes, gay marriage is a tough issue. But ripping away the rights of every gay person and their children in the commonwealth should be a no-brainer. You can explain why that's a bad thing, even to the people of Virginia, if you have half a spine.

Feel free to give the homophobe an earful:

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