Myopic Tennessean says to shun same-sex couples; stops short of suggesting a border fence (for now)

« Go back a post || Return to G-A-Y homepage || Haul tail to next post »

11/04/2013

by Jeremy Hooper

I lived in Tennessee for twenty-two years and have lived in Manhattan for eleven-and-a-half. But since I am a legally married gay man, David Fowler, the head of Tennessee's big anti-gay group, thinks my family and I should just stay where we belong and never consider returning to his state. Because it's his; he and his discriminatory mindset own it.

Responding to a pair of couples who have filed suit trying to have their out-of-state marriages recognized by the Volunteer State, Fowler says:

"Essentially we have people who, deciding where they want to live and all the other factors that go into that, decided to move to a state they know does not recognize the marriage they entered into in California and New York," he tells OneNewsNow. "And they're essentially asking the court to impose upon the people of Tennessee their definition of marriage."
...
"It's [also] an issue of federalism and it's an issue of the people being able to control their own marital and domestic policy, which the Supreme Court this summer acknowledged was inherently and historically a matter left up to the states," he argues. "California and New York are free to have the definition of marriage they want, but the people of Tennessee should have the definition of marriage they want."

Fowler also points out that homosexual men and women have an option of moving to a state that does recognize same-gender marriage.
FULL: Lawsuit seeks to impose 'gay marriage' on Tenn.[ONN]

Yeah! Just go where you're wanted, you gays! And take your skills, money, and societal contributions with you!

So gross. I tell you, it's uniquely disquieting to feel like the state of your birth not only doesn't want you, your husband, and your daughter to come back, plant roots, and pay taxes, but rather is actively telling you to stay away. For LGBT people, that's kind of where we are right now. In so many of our states, we have self-appointed spokespeople like Fowler telling the growing number of same-sex couples that we are simply unwanted and that we should state in states that are properly blue enough to support our unions. These David Fowler types are truly telling us that America, the supposed land of opportunity, is, for LGBT people, only a limited patchwork of potential.

I love Manhattan and honestly don't ever plan to move away. But a big reason why I decided to move here in the first place, at a very young age, is because of the hostility I felt would greet my gay butt when I reached an age where I'd trade the disquiet of my closeted past for the easy comfort of my open present and future. If Tennessee, a gorgeous state if ever there was one, wants to move forward and seize its full strength, then she will stop shunning so many of her natives.

space