Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Who Should Decide Whether Gays Can Marry?

Salon.com News | Cheney backs freedom for gay relationships: “Last month, Lynne Cheney said states should have the final say over the legal status of personal relationships…”

Hmm….doesn’t that sort of fly in the face of the 13th Amendment? (That’s the amendment banning slavery.) I guess what Lynne Cheney means is that states should have the final say about sexual personal relationships. All other kinds of personal relationships get federal treatment. Why the states should have the authority to create their own laws with regard to an individual’s access to some of the benefits of federal regulations is a mystery to me, though. I’m talking about federal income tax here, people. In Lynne Cheney’s world, gay couples in one state could claim their spouse for tax deductions while right over the border in another state they could not.

Does that make sense to you?

No, me neither.

The only rational way of handling this situation is some kind of federal legislation guaranteeing the rights of gay couples. They should have all the same legal benefits available to straight couples.

Read this entire article on salon.com if you have a chance. This quote from Lynne Cheney is really just a small part of it. The more interesting stuff is where Dick Cheney attempts to explain why George Bush was backing a constitutional amendment to prohibit gay marriage. It’s one of the more entertaining examples of double-talk and buck-passing I’ve seen lately.