Texas court overshadows Brewer gay discrimination veto

Wednesday was not a good one for the homophobes and religious zealots embedded in the Republican Party. First Arizona Republican Governor Jan Brewer, as expected, vetoed the bizarre, disgraceful Republican bill which would legalize discrimination by businesses based on sexual orientation. Gov. Brewer didn't wait till the Saturday deadline to ...stop the bleeding to the Republican brand being pummeled by all decent people and groups deeply offended by this effort to legalize discrimination. As I've been arguing for some time, its really up to the decent Republican souls to savage their party from becoming a 21st century version of the Whig Party. Both Arizona senators John McCain and Jeff Flake, urged Brewer to veto the bill and applauded its demise. Three of the GOP Arizona legislators who voted for the bill also "came out" and urged its veto. Apparently, the Stupid Pills they took before the vote wore off, bringing them back to reality and decency.

But the really big civil rights news occurred in Texas. US District Court Judge Orlando Garcia, struck down Texas' law preventing Texas gays from marrying. While he stayed his decision pending appeal, this decision is far more important than the Arizona brouhaha because that bill would never have survived a Constitutional challenge had it gone into effect. Gay marriage bans affect gays much more than a lunatic state law daring to legalize the right to refuse goods and services to gays. Its another gigantic nail in the coffin of homophobia infecting the 33 states still outlawing gay marriage. Texas is now the sixth state in the last two months to have had a state ban on gay marriage overturned. Incredibly, four of them are in deeply homophobic red states. Texas joins Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, as well as Ohio and Virginia which now sets the stage for a Supreme Court ruling to hopefully, legalize gay marriage homophobia in all 50 states.

This long overdue civil rights revolution can be achieved faster if more sensible Republicans like senators McCain and Flake will step forth to purge their party of the haters and the ignorant keeping America from truly representing the best of humankind. Sadly, dead end Texas dinosaurs Governor Rick Perry and Attorney General Greg Abbott vowed to appeal Judge Garcia's ruling. They probably didn't ponder the wise words of Judge Garcia in striking down this reprehensible Texas law: "Today’s court decision is not made in defiance of the great people of Texas or the Texas Legislature, but in compliance with the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court precedent. Without a rational relation to a legitimate governmental purpose, state-imposed inequality can find no refuge in our U.S. Constitution.”

Amen, Judge.