By any means necessary?

The secret is out.

It’s been out for quite a while to be honest with you, which is why it’s kind of surprising that people are still trying to use it legitimately. Nevertheless, on Saturday the 21^st of May, the Rapture didn’t happen and Minnesota joined the ranks of the 29 other states that have allowed voters to decide on whether or not to ban gay marriage by actually amending the state constitution. This isn’t about democracy. In fact, I don’t even think it’s intended to actively discriminate against gay people any more. This is simply about scoring political gains for the Republican Party at the polls in November 2014.

Remember when George W Bush was re-elected? His 2004 campaign was managed by Ken Mehlman. When Mehlman publicly acknowledged he is a gay man last year, he brought a few home-truths out of the closet with him. Namely, that the Republican Party worked very hard to ‘motivate’ religious and conservative voters to the polls by making sure issues like abortion and gay-rights were also on the 2004 ballot. It is, after all, much easier to get people to stand up for what they passionately believe is wrong than to passionately stand up for what they believe is right. And while they’re there, they might as well vote for Bush.

Take another look at that list of states: 14 of them (nearly half) passed their amendments in 2004, GWB scored another term by a landslide and Republicans won majorities in the House and the Senate. Regardless of whether this approach was morally just, it was certainly successful.

Ironically, it can be argued that banning gay marriage through a constitutional amendment is fundamentally anti-Republican. The Republican Party, after all, supposedly stands for limited government intervention and individual liberty – as pointed out by GOProud. But somewhere along the way conservative politics got tangled up in conservative religion and now the two are inseparable...or are they?

Apart from GOProud, there are a few political conservatives willing to stand up for LGBT equality. Mehlman is one of them, and he recently contributed to the Big Think’s debate through this short video. Laura Bush, Lynne Cheney and Cindy McCain have all opposed their husband’s stances and come out in support of gay marriage (or at least said it shouldn’t be banned at the federal level). Perhaps more importantly, New York’s mayor Michael Bloomberg has recently been personally visiting GOP candidates to discuss the issue of gay marriage and has said he will use his significant influence to support any Republican who is willing to stand up for equality.

But I’m not here to pretend there is any hope that the Republican Party will actually change its course.

I’m here to point out that this IS an issue of human rights that affects a minority group, and, as such, it shouldn’t be left to a majority vote. The only thing that will right what Minnesota has just put into motion is if it backfires and motivates people to go to the polls and actually stand up for what is right. I’m here to put into the world a little bit of hope that, by 2012, people will be able to put aside their own personal or religious views and come to the conclusion through a majority vote that it simply shouldn’t be the government’s role to legislate against a person’s right to marry the person they love simply because of gender.