New York Senate Vote on Marriage Equality!

Yes, this is going to be a rant so I am sorry if this comes off as being a bit rabid or even slightly unfocused but I am very disturbed by the events in New York today.

In a saddening but not wholly surprising vote, New York State Senate voted down the Marriage Equality Bill by 24-38. As the Yes vote needed 35 to pass, this couldn't even be called a close vote. So what happened?

Simple - close minded hatred and bigotry won the day with the intolerant trying to sound dignified as they rang out the old arguments to justify the fact that they do not accept that being gay is worth standing up for.

What amazes me about these hypocrits is that they state that they are freedom and equality, but what they really mean is freedom and equality for people like them. If the group being discriminated against were being so because of the colour of their skin, their faith, their nationality or their gender, then I am positive thse self-same Senators would be standing up for these people. This is why I call them hypocrits.

What galls is that America is, supposedly, overseas right now spreading democracy. We all know that was a pretext for things more sinister by President Bush and his cronies but under Barack Obama it was a phrase that at least had a chance of gaining some legitimacy. But how can America, or any country with the same legal position, talk about spreading freedom to other countries when it hasn't got it right back home. This has far reaching consequences as a vote like this weakens America's world view as a bastion of equality and tolerance.

Over the last few years under President Bush, I was becoming very jaded with America (and with some Americans, specifically the right-wing bible thumpers) and would happily make sport of their terrible inner lie of talking justice in other countries whilst not delivering the same at home. With Obama I ahd hoped that it was a sign that the people of America had had enough of such views, and wanted to reclaim the country they loved, a country that they felt should do more than just talk about concepts like freedom and justice and tolerance, but walk them as well, both domestically as well as internationally.

However this vote means one of two things: Either that was a false dawn and the religious right still have a terrible and debilitating handhold on the civil rights and human rights views in America OR it means that the last gasps of theocratic tyranny and abuse of the innocent in America has still to be swept aside.

I desperately hope it is the latter, and that this terrible vote, which has only shown that in the Senate there are 38 very ignorant people (that i hope will be remembered as such come election time) is merely a set back towards the greater goal of proper equality and respect that should always have been given the LGBT community. If it is the former however, then I fear that America is going to tear itself apart and perhaps do more damage.

I want to be wrong. I want this to be a blip on the screen and not a sign of the flood to come. I want to be wrong, but I fear I may not be.