‘Family values’ platform just campaign hype?
I had an interesting weekend. Saturday I spent the evening manning the table at the ASU LGBTQ table at gay pride, and on Sunday I attended the Republican debate for John Shadegg’s congressional seat.
Now obviously one event served alcohol, and the other, political sound bites, but what was really interesting is that I was suddenly offended by the repetition of “returning to family values” at the Republican event.
I guess I was in a particular mood because I had just spent the evening trying to sell the virtues of an ASU degree to some people who were just having way too much fun. But it really rubbed me the wrong way when, once again, I heard homophobic phrases turned into innocuous sounding slogans.
Correct me if I am wrong, but weren’t the guys who flew the planes into the twin towers looking for virgin [girls] in return, and wasn’t the straight guy who shot up all those heroes at Fort Hood a frustrated guy who liked strip clubs? How about Timothy McVeigh … another straight terrorist? Yet the world is about to go straight down the tubes because this weekend two girls held hands.
I am in no way saying straight people cause the world’s ills, but neither do gay [people]. It is the crazy ones. I am registered Independent, I see the hypocrisy all around, which is why it drives me nuts when anyone thinks it is OK to deny a dying person the ability to see his or her loved one so he or she can win a political contest. It is ironic how politicians look to correct the world’s ills in every house but their own.
If these politicians think there is something wrong with being gay, then they don’t know a gay person. I mean know them really as human beings, because if they did they would see they are just as loving and friendly and smart as any of their straight friends. Then they could go back to their more familiar punching bags like Pelosi, Reid and Obama.
So Sam Crump, Pamela Gorman, LeAnn Hull, Steve Moak, Paulina Vasquez Morris, Vernon Parker, Ben Quayle, Jim Waring and Ed Winkler, tell me, do you believe family values means denying gay people the ability to get married? Or is it just part of a conservative platform like a borrowed suit you wear to high school dance? I think we, the people, would really like to know.
Daniel Hatch
Undergraduate
