U.S. Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN)
A man has got to have priorities. And when you're the Senate Majority Leader, you get to make your personal priorities, however small-minded and misguided, the nation's priorities. Which leads us to Sen. Bill Frist's hell-bent crusade to bring the anti-gay and anti-American Marriage Protection Amendment to the Senate floor for a vote in June.
Because that's what this country needs right now. If only discrimination against gays was enshrined in the United States Constitution, Americans could finally be safe and happy again. Gas prices would fall to a buck a gallon – hell, a buck a tank, regardless of size! Iraq would be a model of peace and democracy. Families displaced by hurricane Katrina wouldn't still be living in FEMA trailers. There would be a cure for AIDS and for cancer. Bird flu would be eradicated. Children wouldn't ever go to bed hungry. Heterosexual couples would embrace and dance in the street. Everyone would get a free kitten.
Hey, speaking of kittens, funny story for you. When Frist was a med student he used to adopt kittens from animal shelters pretending he was going to keep them as pets and then he'd – okay, are you ready? You're gonna laugh – then he'd torture and kill them! Isn't that a riot?
Oh, wait. No it isn't. It's sick. Completely sick and cruel. Unconscionable, even. In fact, it's something a sociopath would do (which is exactly what I meant when I mentioned in this column two weeks ago that the folks currently in charge are sociopaths masquerading as Republicans). Yet that's who we have calling the shots in the Senate. Thank you, Tennessee.
Now where was I before I got distracted by Frist's past as a cold-hearted kitten killer?
Oh yes, the marriage amendment.
On May 18 a Senate committee voted along party lines, 10-8, to send the marriage amendment to the full Senate for a vote, where it is not expected to pass.
Then why bother? Well, politics, of course. It's an election year (you did know that, didn't you?), and Frist wants the Senate on record as being either pro-homo or anti-homo. It's a personal favor to the right-wing windbags who support Frist's bid to be president in 2008.
The Marriage Protection Amendment reads, "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman."
Many worry that the second part of the amendment would nullify marriages between same-sex couples in Massachusetts as well as domestic partnerships and civil unions in other states. There's talk of getting a "kinder, gentler" amendment to replace this one, but it would still be unacceptable.
Even Laura Bush gets it. On May 14 she said of the amendment, "I don't think it should be used as a campaign tool, obviously."
Obvious to some, sister, but obviously not all.
Give Frist a ring at 202-224-3344.
