{"id":780,"date":"2004-03-18T06:58:33","date_gmt":"2004-03-18T11:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wordpress\/2004\/03\/tennessee_targeting_gays\/"},"modified":"2004-03-18T06:58:33","modified_gmt":"2004-03-18T11:58:33","slug":"tennessee_targeting_gays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/2004\/03\/tennessee_targeting_gays\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee Targeting Gays"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday word circulated on a Rhea County motion to urge its state legislators to outlaw gay sex<\/a>, notwithstanding the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling that anti-sodomy laws are unconstitutional. County commissioner J.C. Fugate was quoted as saying he wanted to keep homosexuals “out of here.”
\nMeanwhile, over in Nashville, state lawmakers held hearings on a bill to add a constitutional amendment to prohibit gay marriages and civil unions<\/a>.
\nLegislators at their worst. Supporters of this are engaging in political posturing by driving through a wedge issue to confront a non-existent problem. And look at the behavior this silliness has sparked:<\/p>\n

”You are so wrong. It’s discrimination,” said Patricia Cash, a Nashville woman, who wagged her finger in [Rep. Chris] Clem’s face as television cameras rolled and reporters crowded around the pair.
\n. . .
\nAs Cash confronted Clem, another audience member, Jack Brown of Hendersonville, approached. ”You are totally right,” he told Clem as he tried to drown out Cash’s criticism.
\n”You have got to stop playing God,” Cash told Clem.
\nBrown turned to Cash and said, ”In Jesus’ name, shut your mouth.”
\n”Oh, shut up. You don’t know who Jesus is,” Cash responded.
\nCash, 54, later told reporters she confronted Clem because ”I heard nothing but vile hatred towards people.”
\nDuring the meeting, which drew a standing-room-only crowd, state Rep. Beverly Marrero, D-Memphis, asked Clem, ”Don’t you think this is unconstitutional?”
\nAnd later, ”Don’t you think this is un-Christian?” to which some audience members applauded.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Good grief. Last time I checked the educational system and health care costs in this state are disasters, and our state leaders are engaging in this stuff. Wonderful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday word circulated on a Rhea County motion to urge its state legislators to outlaw gay sex, notwithstanding the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling that anti-sodomy laws are unconstitutional. County commissioner J.C. Fugate was quoted as saying he wanted to keep homosexuals “out of here.” Meanwhile, over in Nashville, state lawmakers held hearings on a […]<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"h-entry","8":"hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}