Preserve the Balance
Team Supreme Blog
Extremists Show True Colors on Miers Gay Questionnaire Issue
Following President Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, the revelation of a questionnaire on gay issues she had filled out 16 years ago sparked controversy among the far right. She wasn't seeking the endorsement of the gay group, nor was she in favor of repealing the state's sodomy law, but the mere fact that she met with gay voters sent extremists on a rampage.
"I have a concern that Miss Miers was helping legitimize the drive of homosexual organizations for power and influence over public policies," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council in a statement Tuesday.
"Bush's pro-Sodomite nominee" is what the right-leaning website covenantnews.com labeled her, according to the Chicago Tribune.
- While her meeting showed openness and offers some hope that Miers might have some fair-minded inclinations, Miers wasn't even seeking the endorsement of the gay political group.
- In fact, she supported laws that criminalized private bedroom behavior and wouldn't say she supported a non-discrimination law for gays in the workplace. Miers only acknowledged support for AIDS funding during some of darkest days of the epidemic in America.
Cathie Adams, president of the Texas Eagle Forum told the Washington Post "For goodness' sake, why elevate AIDS over cancer? She shouldn't have filled out that questionnaire at all."
While we still have a lot more to learn about Miers, the reaction from the far right-wing to this news so clearly reveals the depth of their opposition to basic decency toward GLBT Americans.
Filling in the Blanks
Many in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community saw her willingness to appear before a gay and lesbian audience in Dallas in 1989 as a small glimmer of hope that Miers is not as intolerant as the Right Wing wants a justice to be. While her answers indicated that she supported the Texas sodomy law (which was later overturned by the Supreme Court with Sandra Day O'Connor's vote) and didn't support an ordinance to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, we were hopeful that she was open to equality for the gay and lesbian community. Was she?
White House surrogates fell over each other to assure their base that she was not. Amazingly, the simple suggestion that Miers might be slightly sympathetic to the gay and lesbian community produced a ferocious backlash from conservative "validators". James Dobson's group, Focus on the Family, said that they had no problem with her answers on the survey. Focus on the Family has been a longtime foe of basic civil rights for the GLBT community – including workplace protections and hate crimes laws.
How was Focus on the Family so quick to judge her answers and validate her bona fide conservative credentials? One must look back to this past weekend... even before her nomination was announced to the Senate and to the American people. The NY Times reported that Karl Rove called James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family. In welcoming the Miers nomination that came as a shock to many in the conservative corner, Dobson said he knew things that he wasn't a liberty to talk about. Huh? Why is James Dobson the holder of information that nobody else , including those United States Senators who are going to vote on this nomination, knows? http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/04/politics/politicsspecial1/04conserv.html
Up Next? Ms. Miers..
She has no judicial experience, although many justices -- including Chief Justice Earl Warren -- had no judicial experince. She is a Bush loyalist. She is from Texas. Some have expressed surprise that in the press conference announcing her nomination, the president stated that Miers was on the board of an organization called Exodus Ministries. This is not the infamous ex-gay group, but is a Texas-based organization that describes itself as "a non-denominational Christian organization established to assist ex-offenders and their families become productive members of society by meeting both their spiritual and physical needs." http://www.exodusministriesinc.com/objective.htm
Since very little is known, it is up to the Senate to carefully examine her record and her views. Given the importance of the seat she has been nominated to fill, they owe it to the nation.
.