Desperate Times Call for Tortured Arguments

Where's there's smoke, there's also a whiff of desperation.

Cigarette smoke, according to Iowa Family Policy Center President Chuck Hurley, is a lesser health risk than gay marriage. Yes, you heard right. Hurley latched onto a Centers for Disease Control report showing higher rates of syphilis and HIV among gay men and twisted it into one more tortured argument for inequality.

Never mind that monogamous, stable married relationships are an antidote to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Hurley wants to make them off limits to gays and lesbians. The report also said social stigma and homophobia are factors that keep some gay men from seeking prevention information and treatment. Paging Dr. Hurley, chief stigmatologist.

Then, on Sunday, this fine publication ran an op-ed piece by Sen. Merlin Bartz, R-Grafton, who wrapped a lot of big words around the ridiculous old argument that being gay is choice, like picking a political party or a necktie.

Bartz precedes this with a dissertation on how government discriminates all the time, conveniently leaving out how the Iowa Supreme Court ruled unanimously that, in this case, there was no constitutional basis for the state's bias.

These are not the sturdy, persuasive arguments of a movement on its way up. These, especially Hurley's smoky folly, are cries for attention from a shrinking legion that senses its time is running out.

Chants of “let us vote” didn't sway the Legislature into pushing a gay marriage ban toward the ballot, so now we're about to enter the “let us scare you” phase. The state's political landscape will be littered with this trash all election year, brought to you in no small part by out-of-state groups, like the National Organization for Marriage. now free to raise corporate cash.

They'll have to get more and more outlandish to catch the attention of Iowans more and more concerned about so many other pressing issues with an impact on their lives. Hurley and others know the longer marriage equity is the norm of the land, the tougher it will be to yank the state backward. They also know these tactics have worked elsewhere.

But Iowans will be tougher to fool. Sure “31 states” banned equity, but most nixed it before it was even legal. In Iowa, it will be on the books for years before a vote, if one ever happens. Fear is tougher to stir when a fearless reality has already taken hold.

And Iowans who judge presidential timber and have a proud tradition of leading on civil rights aren't sheep. We chart our own path and see if the nation is smart enough to catch up.

And we know desperation when we smell it.

Comments: (319) 398-8452 or todd.dorman@gazcomm.com