The Democratic President of the Senate in Maryland is urging “Evangelicals, Catholics, African Americans” to oppose an upcoming gay marriage bill, and to vote against one if it ever came to a public referendum. Senator Mike Miller on a radio program said that while he didn’t want to sound like Republican presidential hopefuls, “I’m a father married for 50 years, I got 5 children, I got 13 grandchildren, I’m a traditionalist.” Miller said he wouldn’t stand in the way of a vote, and if there is a vote, as expected, in the Senate, it would again pass. But Miller’s suggestion to minorities and the religious right to oppose an equal rights measure is patently offensive and divisive, and smacks of a Maggie Gallagher move.
Miller, in explaining his opposition, however, did sound like a Republican presidential candidate, saying, “I’m a historian and I look at civilizations, I study civilizations, I read history every night. And I see it’s an attack on the family, I think it’s an attack on traditional families. That’s the way I see it.”
Apparently, now that Newt Gingrich is an “historian,” anyone who has read a high school history text book can be as well. The problem is, they’re all bad historians, because, as we know, same-sex unions were formalized in the Church centuries ago. Only in the dark ages of the 19th, 20th, and now 21st centuries have same-sex unions been opposed.
Fortunately, Maryland’s Democratic Governor Martin O’Malley has already offered his support for a same-sex marriage equality bill, so the hurdle, Mike Miller aside, is the House.
During the radio exchange, Speaker of the House Michael Busch, also a Democrat, asserted that marriage equality is a “civil rights issue.” Miller denied his counterpart claim.
Last year, the Senate approved a gay marriage bill, but the House adjourned without a final vote on the bill.
Last week, the Washington Post noted that Maryland labor leaders strongly supported the efforts to pass a marriage equality bill, and were putting their financial and manpower assets behind it.
One final note.
In the beginning of the audio, courtesy of Think Progress, Miller repeats the false claim the Catholic Charities adoption center in Massachusetts was forced to close because of the Massachusetts same-sex marriage law.
Let’s be very clear here. Catholic Charities in every state that considers a same-sex marriage bill always promises to close rather than allow loving, legally-married same-sex couple to adopt. That’s offensive on its face. Catholic Charities first pulled this in Massachusetts, where the congregation voted to allow same-sex couples to adopt. Then the Board voted to allow same-sex couples to adopt. Then the heard of Catholic Charities made a decision — on his own — to ignore the will of the people and of his own board and closed Catholic Charities adoption services, rather than let gays adopt.
This is what Mike Miller and Newt Gingrich and Maggie Gallagher all call being “forced to close.”
Bull.
As for Mike Miller, perhaps a career change is wise? I hear amateur historians are in great demand.