Politically, TBGL people vary in their beliefs just as any other groups. Even so, can’t deny I was a little shocked to know of Trans people that were republicans, but as a wise woman once told me, it takes many people to make the world go round. Many in the tblg advocacy group maybe a little weary of expressing their political affiliation out of fear of excluding any future supporters. While I can support some ‘sane’ fiscal responsibility in government, am an unashamed, flaming, and left-wing liberal on social issues. If a person shows you who you are, believe them. As Governor of South Carolina Mark Sanford was proud to be and show how anti-TBGL he was, so why are we expecting a different demonstration?
November 2002 Mark Sanford, then Governor not only was in favor of restricting marriage to a union only between a man and a woman but he also opposed civil unions. He also opposed continuing affirmative action in colleges and university admissions and voting yes on banning gay adoptions. He was and still is so anti-tbgl that he also voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act, that would have made amends in the Federal judicial code to provide that no state, territory or possession of the United States or Indian tribe shall be required to give effect to any marriage between person of the same sex under the laws of any other such jurisdiction or to any right or claim arising from such relationship.
The former Governor who ran and was celebrated for promoting
family values has been known to say, that he believes that gay marriage is
wrong because he believes, based on what the bible says, that homosexuality is
a sin and believes it is a choice gay and lesbians make and not something
someone is born with. This from a man
that not only embarrassed and caused the people of South Carolina wasted tax
dollars looking for him in the Appalachian Trails but as Nicholas F. Benton
wrote in a June 2009 article in the Falls
Church New- Press, "The utter
hypocrisy of right-wing Republicans who’ve done everything in their power to
disenfranchise and deny marital and other rights to lesbians and gays jumped
out of the headlines again yesterday when South Carolina’s Republican Gov. Mark
Sanford was caught having an extra-marital affair, and was forced to confess.”
Mr. Benton ends poetically with, "’Defense of marriage’ my foot!” The
Australian quoted Sanford as saying, "The bottom line is this--I have been
unfaithful to my wife."
Now as a candidate for the first congressional district,
Sanford wants his old job as a representative again. Giving him the power to propose and vote on
bills like, you guessed it, marriage equality and affirmative action
legislation. He’s asking for our forgiveness and understanding, not an
impossible task actually if you’re a minority, that is, those of use that want
to be judged by our character and not by the color of our skin or whom we choose
to love. Then again, character, is the issue with Mark Sanford; he’s proven to
us with anti anyone else that’s not like him legislation, infidelity, abuse of an
elected office, misuse of tax payer funds and earning the public’s mistrust. My
question is, though we can forgive someone of being human, are we going to give
them the power, again, to deny us the respect we deserve as human beings? Capable
of legally loving whom we choose, be given a fair chance in the work place and
in college admissions.
If you’re still not convinced Mark Sanford is no friend of
the TBGL community. In fact he’d be more accurately labeled our prime enemy,
try remembering London England, 2008. A year before the Governor, internationally,
embarrassed the state and his family, he
learned that South Carolina was being advertised as a gay tourist destination
and ordered a Cabinet-level department
he “to
do the right thing personnel-wise or process-wise to ensure this does not
happen again,” Sanford’s spokesman Joel Sawyer told Q-notes. It was in reaction to U.S. media reports of
the time, that a subway poster mounted in London, England, during Gay Pride
week was announcing, “South
Carolina is so gay.” The state
employee who approved the ads was forced to resign. Similar ads were posted in
Atlanta, Boston, and Vegas; they were labeled “inappropriate”,
by then Governor Sanford. The advertisement received such negative reaction
from Sanford and other state leaders that the fallout from the TBGL tourism is
possibly still being felt. According to an Huffington
Post article, Warren Redman-Gress, executive director of the South Carolina
Alliance for Full Acceptance, a gay and lesbian advocacy group said, “I get
calls regularly, people who want to know before I come and spend my hard-earned
money, my souvenir dollars in South Carolina, is it a place where it is OK for
me to be gay?” Whatever business you
have that caters to the TBGL community may still be affected by those negative
reactions from Sanford. Also imagine how many young, bullied TBGL people may no
longer be a resident of this state or chose not to move here with such public
anti-TBGL attitudes coming from the head of our state. Is this, in 2013, the impression we want the
community worldwide to view SC?
The reaction to Sanford then, caused the SC Pride Movement,
to honor him with a “so gay” award for his blatant discrimination against the
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community of South Carolina and those
tourists who are now less likely to visit SC because of his comments, your
homophobia is “So Gay’!
Truly, Mark Sanford has shown us who he is and we need not
to ask him to give us further demonstrations of his hate filled legislation. In
2013 our eyes should be moving forward, not backwards, to marriage equality for
all and an end to discrimination in the workplace due to gender. Can we afford
a return of a cheat, a liar and a bigot, whom before his 2009 scandal was even
considered as a possible running mate to then Presidential Candidate McCain? We,
as SC TBGL voters (those who voted for him and those that didn’t vote at all),
would have been greatly responsible for placing a man, one step away from being
President of the United States that stood against us and against a true united,
United States. Today, we are faced with that same option because Mark Sanford
wants to restart his political career at his initial point prior to his own
downfall, as Congressman Sanford. Don’t
think for a second he’ll stop there and don’t lie to yourselves that he has
changed. Scorned and embarrassed by his own infidelity, he’ll be now more than
ever and maybe even super charged, to pacify those that would preach to US,
about family Values. Your goal, if you want any respect as a human being and
not as a letter in the TBGL alphabet; stop Mark Sanford now and tell him to go
back to Argentina, we will not cry for him.
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