Bricker: The voters of Mardyland should not have the right to repeal a law that grants people a basic right. At least, not so easily (a la the Amendments; it’s bloody hard to take away rights, but doable). That we do is unfortunate, and hopefully will not be excercised (you can be sure I’ll be voting on this one).
What pissed me off the most about the article was that it wasn’t news. It was on the front page of the “Maryland” section of the Baltimore Sun; it should be a news story. If they’d printed “Area Man Fights to Repeal Gay Rights Bill”, with some information about his organization and the news that they are collecting signatures, then I would be ok with it. Well, I’d still think the guy was a total shit, but I wouldn’t be annoyed at the paper. They gave him enough quotes–or paraphrasings–that it was practically an op-ed piece. Grrr…
I can agree with the first half of the OP but not the second.
It’s news and it’s hard to see why the paper shouldn’t have run the story. There’s a substantial response from the bill’s supporters so it’s not like the paper allowed him a guest editorial piece. And if they’d done that, so what? He’d be exposing his views even further and helping to drum up opposition to whatever ballot measure he can devise.
I think “Get out of my state” is more appropriate than “Get out of my newspaper”. Suppressing unpopular or even hateful views is not what American journalism is supposed to be about.
What’s sad is, y’all just think he’s a crackpot that doesn’t deserve attention, when, actually, he does - despite what it sometimes may seem, that the gay community is making inroads, there are just as many places where we’re not, or, worse, losing ground. Anti-gay initiatives do get passed all the time, including all those lovely DOMA siblings that many, many states have passed, that marriage can only be defined as being between a man and a woman and no other kind of relationship will be recognized.
So, yeah, he’s a bigot, but sometimes the bigots win. Let’s not forget that.