Remember that pesky little lawsuit demanding equal rights, by way of equal partner benefits? Guess who the Republicans in the legislature asked to take the anti side, here? If you guessed the Alliance Defense Fund, you'd be right! Who is the Alliance Defense Fund? Well, it was founded by James Dobson. Dobson's been in the news lately, you may recall, for hating on Spongebob and having Bill Frist by the short hairs.
The list of atrocities ADF has been involved in is too long to do in full. I'll hit the lowlights:
- ADF was involved in the fake crisis over the Cupertino schools' "banning" of the Declaration of Independence (more on the story here)
- ADF makes a habit of breaking up families
- ADF fought the gay marriage licenses in Oregon last year
- ADF defended the ban against gay scoutmasters
- ADF led the "Day of Truth [sic]" protest against the national "Day of Silence"
- ADF sued a gay couple who had already been denied a marriage license
And so on. For more information, read Rolling Stone and People for the American Way. Then, contact your legislator and ask, politely, that your tax dollars not be spent on these bigots.
The ADF incident almost makes the second half of my post palatable. Today a state senate committee passed, on a party-line vote, the bill that allows pharmacists to choose not to fill prescriptions for birth control, Plan B, and other contraceptive devices. The bill does not require that the pharmacist transfer the prescription, nor does it require that every pharmacy have someone on staff to to fill it.
My friend Stacie took on this issue, and made many good points. You can add to her arguments such gaping holes in the bill as no prohibition against pharmacists applying their consciences unequally, granting birth control to married women but not to single women, for example.
What eats me up most is something Matt Sande said on Ben Merens's show this afternoon (love that traffic). He's the director of Pro-Life Wisconsin, the organization that lobbied for and won this bill--no medical associations or organizations anywhere in the state asked for this. He kept describing how other medical professionals had protections--surgeons aren't forced to do abortions, for example--and all they want is for "special" rights for these pharmacists not to have to do their jobs.
I remember back in the day when it was a bad thing when people asked for "special" rights. IOKIYAR all around, eh?
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