The culture wars have begun

Stung by the Supreme Court's acknowledgement of basic human decency and notions of fairness, GOP Senate leader Frist is backing a Constitutional Amendment that would ban gay marriage.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist expressed concern about the Supreme Court's decision last week to strike down a Texas sodomy law. He said he supported an amendment that would reserve marriage for relationships between men and women.

"I very much feel that marriage is a sacrament, and that sacrament should extend and can extend to that legal entity of a union between, what is traditionally in our Western values has been defined, as between a man and a woman," said Frist, of Tennessee. "So I would support the amendment."

Frist then pulls a Santorum with a ridiculous slippery slope argument:

Frist said he feared that the ruling on the Texas sodomy law could lead to a situation "where criminal activity within the home would in some way be condoned."

"And I'm thinking of, whether it's prostitution or illegal commercial drug activity in the home, and to have the courts come in, in this zone of privacy, and begin to define it gives me some concern," Frist said.

Got it. It's not a civil rights issue -- the right to love whoever you want to love in a consensual relationship. If you allow the gays to, you know, be gay, then you also have to allow prostitution and drug use.

Not even a half-crazed berzerker Scalia resorted to arguments this ridiculous.

In any case, it's clear that gay marriage will now be a campaign issue. So far, Bush has gotten away with ignoring the Supremes' stunning decisions on gay rights and affirmative action.

There's no way the GOP base lets Bush stay silent.

Posted June 29, 2003 11:43 AM | Comments (176)