Same Sex Marriage May Become Legal...Next up—Transgenders

Mainstream media has reported that one of the latest Republicans to announce support for recognizing gay marriage (Senate Bill 6239) is Glenn Anderson (Fall City - King County). While Anderson explains his rationale at some length, there are a couple of reasons to believe Anderson is little more than an argument ad populum. Anderson is, after all, a candidate for lieutenant governor.

Announcing that he has "investigated the relevant criteria defining marriage," Anderson concludes that the "primary purpose of civil marriage remains to provide a neutral and secular foundation for social order and an orderly transfer of property rights."

Transgenders can do that.

Tricia Romano reports Time magazine predicted just last month that transgender people's legal issues to be the next big civil-rights frontier. And why not? The same premise Anderson uses to defend same sex marriage — that of an "underlying genetic predisposition" — is promulgated by the trans trenders likewise seeking to establish their own gender identity.

Besides the sadly typical political weather vane approach to lawmaking — as one congressional candidate told me: "sometimes you have to sacrifice principle to get elected" (he lost) — Anderson says he's checked the ancient historical record on marriage but in the process has overlooked some of the more recent trends.

Anderson writes, "little change has occurred in the traditional definition of civil marriage until California authorized no-fault divorce in 1962." Yes. And then what happened?  "No-fault divorce," writes Jim Daly of Focus on the Family, "promised to simplify, streamline and decrease the contentiousness surrounding marital breakup.  Instead it only encouraged struggling spouses to throw in the towel.  Fathers abandoned their families in droves.  Poverty levels sky-rocketed.  Prison populations increased to dramatic levels, a consequence of kids now growing up without fathers in the home."

Anderson ignores yet another trend when he writes, "Finally, we must ask what the federal judicial criteria for constitutional 'equal protection under law' is related to our constitution."  Yes, let's do that shall we?  What constitutional and judicial protections are there for the unborn?  In 1973 the Supreme Court legalized abortion in all 50 states.  "Supporters," writes Daly, "heralded a new era of responsibility, where every child would be a wanted child.  Tragically, over 48 million babies have now been aborted and the beauty of life has been cheapened as a result, while child abuse has sky-rocketed."

This is the court, trumpted by Anderson, of which Romano writes that "last month ruled in favor of Vandiver Elizabeth Glenn, who was fired from her job after coming out as transgender."

Taking their cue from such legislative endorsements as Anderson's for gays and lesbians, transgenders are now strutting their stuff.  With Romano's revelation of "trans supermodels walk(ing) the runways; news stories pop(ing) up every day about transgender rights being trampled on; and people like Chaz Bono outed as a lesbian by the National Enquirer in 1990" there is reason to believe that Anderson's 'research' is not a little affected by "the whole celebrity media and tabloid culture kicking into gear."

Romano observes, "While it has been 15 years and counting since Ellen DeGeneres came out on the cover of Time, helping people start to come around to concepts like gay marriage and gays in the military, trans awareness has grown exponentially through the Internet's connectedness."

When trend-setters determine truth, we're in trouble.