Bigots Hate It When You Call Them That

Atrios directs us over to Pandagon, who does a great job of illustrating the penchant of the “family values” crowd to go nuts when someone clearly describes what they’re trying to do. In this case, CA Attorney General Jerry Brown has revised the Proposition 8 ballot question to read (in part):

Changes California Constitution to eliminate right of same-sex couples to marry. Provides that only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.

Well, okay. That’s exactly what it proposes to do. The CA Supreme Court recognized a state constitutional right to marriage (regardless of sex) and this proposal seeks to eliminate that right. What’s to be mad about?:

This completely obliterates the conservative framing of the issue (“protecting marriage”, “preserving the traditional family,” etc.) and shows that supporters of the ballot initiative want to repeal a civil right that is now in place. And the fundies are hopping mad. [ . . . ]

Jennifer Kerns of the Protect Marriage coalition told the Los Angeles Times the revised wording is “inherently argumentative.” Kerns said the wording had the potential to ”prejudice voters against the initiative.”

I saw this over and over again in the time leading up to the vote where Virginia showed the world what a backwards place it really is, in many respects. The proponents of the anti-same sex marriage provision would spit out some of the most vile and obscene things – the usual stuff – and then go nuts when you called them bigots (and I’ll note that more than a few Dems were complicit, as they didn’t like hearing the bigotry of their parents (or themselves) called out for what it is). My response?

If you don’t like being called a bigot, don’t act like one.