Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has issued an opinion that cities, towns and ISD’s providing domestic partnership benefits to same-sex couples violate of the state’s constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
The non-binding opinion was given in response to a request by a Tea Party backed candidate concerned about Pfugerville Independent School District granting domestic partner benefits. It is a movement that is now sweeping the state. The conservatives are right to be scared. Their white bread view of humankind is about to get tie-dyed in rainbow colors.
When I read the Attorney General’s ruling, my mind flashed back to all those Tea Party rallies with “Don’t Tread on Me” and “Come and Take It” flags that were said to represent the very spirit of rebellion against tyranny. Where is that spirit of freedom when it comes to the rights of non-male, non-white non-Christian and non-straight citizens? Why do the good old boys move so seamlessly from liberty for themselves to an iron fist for everyone else?
It seems very strange to see supposed conservatives and libertarians rallying to the side of big government and against personal freedom whenever someone disagrees with them. The good old boys who howl about freedom when it comes to guns and taxes are the first to destroy worker’s rights to organize, or a woman’s right to choose, or GLBT person’s right to all of the benefits of a citizen.
So, Greg Abbot, since you aren’t going to use it, I’m taking the Tea Party flag and putting it on the city limits of Pflugerville to guard against tyranny aimed at my GLBT neighbors. And the flag will now read, “Hey Greg Abbot, ‘Come and Take It!’ ”
This makes me think of the hypocrisy of the state senator who introduced a bill to make it illegal for a city to ban plastic bags because he was inconvenienced in his personal shopping. He framed it in terms of consumer rights, but I thought, “Isn’t that special to use the state government to bully a city government? How is that embodying any of your so-called conservative ideals about smaller government and leaving things up to the locals?” But then I notice that what conservatives usually want to conserve is their privilege which is to be able to be lord over their own private domain, so it kind of makes it a problem when everyone else says, “You know I’d kind of like those rights too and who are you to tell me what to do?”