Here's alleged comedienne Margaret Cho, a San Francisco native, at the annual Gay Pride celebration in June 2008 (NSFW; language warning):
She was a Sunday School teacher? Well, you know what they say: "...those who can't teach."
Fast forward a few months to November, 2000; Barack Obama was elected President, but Proposition 8 was victorious in California largely because of African-American voter turnout. Exit polls say that 70% of black voters approved of Prop 8. So naturally, gay activists came out in droves and marched on the black community.
Psych!
Of course they didn't go after blacks. They went after Mormons, who were among the most generous and vociferous donors toward the cause of reaffirming traditional marriage as the norm. If you march on a Mormon Temple, you're pretty sure there will be no pushback. You can't necessarily say that about your typical inner-city Baptist church. And when you're a minority group that is overwhelmingly white, the optics of going into a black neighborhood to protest are really bad.
Anyway, here's Cho again, making an appearance in Cincinnati, Ohio at what seems to be a gay rights rally the morning after the election. She's written a song for the occasion targeting Mormons. The lyrics are below. The crowd was wildly supportive of all the lyrics, even singing along at the end.
What ever happened to democracy?
Everything equal and fair?
Mormons deny our humanity
And they wear weird underwear
All that we ask for is family
Free from homophobic complaints
Spare me your holy insanity
I protest the Church of Latter-Day Saints
(Chorus)
Don't let the Mormons get away with it
Don't let their legislation pass
Why do you think that they give a $#!+
Shove Proposition 8 up their ass
Maybe we can get them audited
Cut the whole church down to size
They hate gays 'cause they're closeted
Protect our kids from their lies
I want them to suffer for what they've done
What would the Lord on high say?
A true Christian tries to love everyone
And Jesus was probably gay
They've flooded our airwaves with blasphemy
Distortion and misuse of wealth
They try to deny their polygamy
Oh Mormons, go #U¢< yourselves
(Chorus)
As I typed these lyrics, the line "Maybe we can get [the Mormons] audited..." Hmmm. Cho seems to be suggesting using the tax code as a weapon against ideological opponents...in Cincinnati! Were there any IRS employees in that crowd?
Dun-DUN-DAAAAAAH!
But seriously: More interesting is the way Cho refers to polygamy, which was abandoned by the LDS church as a condition of Utah Territory being awarded statehood. Only dissident Mormons (such as the ones loyal to convicted felon Warren Jeffs) continue to openly practice polygamy, daring state and federal governments to prosecute them. It sounds as if Margaret -- who is married, but counts herself among the gay community because she beforehand "went through seriously slutty phases" as a "trisexual" -- thinks polygamy is objectionable; I can't think of another context in which it enters the discussion.
Most of the time, same-sex marriage advocates don't talk about polygamy. They don't want to get into a conversation about how it's the next logical restriction on marriage to fall. Once it is stipulated that men are no longer limited to marrying women and vice versa, for what fathomable reason should the law limit the number of marriage mates to two? What about "trisexuals," like Cho? Why can't she marry a woman in addition to her man? Why can't her man marry another woman? Why can't her husband marry another man? Why can't the man her husband also be married to another woman? Or another man? And so on, and so on.
When it comes to plural marriage and other laws based solely in common standards of morality, if both Prop 8 and DOMA are overturned, expect Justice Scalia to find a scholarly way to say "I told you so on Romer. I told you so on Lawrence. And I'm telling you now."
Mark my words.
P.S. I'm happy to announce that REACTOR has switched to Disqus comments, which are much more user-friendly than Blogger's, which don't allow blockquotes and have those annoying captchas. So please COMMENT!
