We got it wrong.
The next fight for the LGBTQ community isn’t the one to end discrimination in housing and the workplace. Rather, our priority needs to be getting ignorant but powerful bigots like Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, Judge James R. DePiazza of Denton, Texas, and several others like them removed from the bench.
Despite their positions in the judicial system, both men have shown they are incapable of being impartial. Indeed, their words and actions this week in response to the Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage violated four of the five canons governing the code of conduct they swore to uphold.
If you happen to live in Judge DePiazza’s jurisdiction in Texas and would like to get married, you must first sign a document he created to acknowledge his LGBTQ bigotry and opposition to same-sex marriage.
It reads, “While we may not necessarily agree with, we accept Judge DePiazza’s position on same sex marriage, accept the conditions expressed above and understand there will be no discussion regarding his position before, during or after the ceremony.”
You will then receive, as the judge himself put it, “a brief formal declaration of civil marriage ceremony” that meets the absolute minimum standards required by law. Oh, and the judge doesn’t allow photography – his way of spitefully suffocating any memory of the occasion.
How would you, as an LGBTQ individual, like to appear in front of this guy on any judicial matter? Think you could get a fair, impartial trial?
Then there’s Alabama’s notorious Bad Boy Chief Justice Moore who has been somewhat of a celebrity this week delivering anti-LGBTQ rhetoric to large crowds and publicly defying the June 26th ruling.
Moore told a congregation at Magnolia Springs Baptist Church in Theodore that the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage violates the freedom to practice religion. He stirred up ignorance and hate, then sold and autographed (for $20 a copy) his book with more of the same.
Moore also addressed a hate group, Operation Save America (OSA). This radically conservative Christian group is anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ and anti-any religion other than its own. There, the chief justice of the state of Alabama warned the crowd in a 30-minute diatribe of intolerance that the United States was “under attack” and religious liberty and freedom were at stake. As one would expect at a gathering like this, he spoke to cheers and applause.
The fact of the matter is that same-sex marriage is legal, but it may take years for resistance to it by some segments of our society to subside. This is a tense and stressful time for the LGBTQ community in this nation because ignorance and hate can bubble up and explode into violence. We’ve got to be mindful of that.
What we don’t need, especially now, are judicial leaders like Chief Justice Moore and Judge DePiazza fanning the flames.
They need to go.
Photo Credit: www.boxturtlebulletin.com
