West Virginia: We're Too Poor To Think About Banning Gay Marriage!

Hell! Banning ANYTHING Just Makes Us Poorer!

(And besides - it's not the right thing to do)

Christofascist Alert!

The Family Policy Council is now embroiled in "intimidation" of lawmakers.

By 365gay Newscenter Staff
03.30.2009 2:23pm EDT

(Charleston, West Virginia) A bid to advance an amendment to West Virginia’s constitution to ban same-sex marriage has failed.

Republicans and social conservatives [Christofascists] had pushed the amendment, but it languished in a House committee.

Earlier this month, the conservative Family Policy Council began a telemarketing campaign accusing two lawmakers - Delegates Carrie Webster and Barbara Fleischauer - of blocking a vote on the measure.

Webster and Fleischauer called the move “intimidation.” The bill was tied up in the House Committee on Constitutional Revision, which Fleischauer heads. If approved there, it would have gone to the House Judiciary committee headed by Webster..

Last year, the Family Policy Council unsuccessfully attempted to pressure Gov. Joe Manchin to recall the legislature to pass the proposed amendment. The measure was added to the legislature’s agenda this session.

Now let's have some background on this situation. West Virginia ranks 47th in the nation in terms of income per capita and 15st in the ratings of colleges and advanced education. (there are only 24 colleges and universities in West Virginia, - and that's counting bible-thumper schools). A great deal of West Virginia's youth sign up for the National Guard or for one of the armed services. When questioned why students are so eager to sign up: "To get an education so's I can get the hell out of West Virginia."

Foundations like the Family Policy Council usually thrive in such uneducated soil: they're allied with Family Research Council, Alliance Defense Fund and James Dobson's Focus on the Family. If you look at the wikipedia link, however, there are MANY Family Policy Councils, some of which provide services for LGBT families. So this one? Strongarmed Christofascists with a hate agenda a mile long!

A bit of an anomoly isn't it: one of the poorest states in the union, with a 75% solid "Christian" demographic and a poor showing for education, will not pass an amendment to the state constitution banning same-sex marriage.

My memory just passed a situation called Abu Ghraib. It was West Virginia's Joe Darby who turned in the photos because it was simply "the right thing to do." But when he came back to West Virginia, he and his wife had to have bodyguards for six months.

The Family Policy Council did not reckon with the deep-rooted family values of West Virginia.

Just a thought.