Palm Beach Post
Letters to the Editor
Friday, June 13, 2015
POINT OF VIEW: Time for GOP to see the light, accept gay marriage
12:00 a.m. Friday, June 12, 2015
As a conservative Republican, I believe it is time for the GOP to stop leading the charge against gay marriage. As an issue among the general public, it is a loser.
Soon, the U.S. Supreme Court justices will decide whether gay marriage is a constitutional right, and I believe that they will decide that it is. That should settle it. Efforts to overturn that decision with a constitutional amendment are a waste of time and resources — and doomed to fail.
I well understand the moral and religious opposition to the gay lifestyle, but that does not change one simple fact: The gay community has already achieved normalization in American culture.
To understand that fact, you need to go back to the days of my youth, when a myriad of laws punished gay intimacy. The suspicion of gayness would cost a person his or her job — even in liberal Hollywood, Calif.
Known gays could not purchase houses, serve in the military or adopt children. Families pretended that the “unmarried uncle” just never found the right girl. Gays could not receive spousal benefits and had no rights of inheritance. They most certainly could never run for public office.
Heterosexuals could not admit to having a gay friend. They could not teach in schools. Their families would reject them. Gays were subjected to harassment and violence with a “what do they expect?” response from society. Movies depicted them as either evil perverts or tragic figures. They had to hide in the shadows.
All of that has changed — and actually reversed. Homosexuality is no longer illegal, and public shunning has largely ceased. They are now highly visible members of society, even to the point of annual parades and public events attended by America’s political leadership — Republican and Democrat.
It seems that even young conservatives within the GOP have no problem with gay rights and gay marriage. Opposition from seniors is fading, as more express love and pride in their gay children and grandchildren (including former Vice President Dick Cheney).
If ever there was any truth in the old adage about “beating a dead horse,” opposition to the normalization of homosexuality in America is a prime example. Outside of a few issues relating to the personal rights of those opposed to the gay lifestyle, the greater issues are no longer influenced by political debate.
The American people have spoken.
LARRY HORIST, BOCA RATON
On The Starboard 