Kentucky's slow journey to basic fairness

[Jamie McDaniel]

A while back when I stayed at a hotel in Louisville, I learned from the visitor's pamphlet on the desk that Louisville was the 16th largest city in the U.S. I was shocked. A city in Kentucky?! Only fifteen other U.S. cities ahead of us? Wow!

While the claim is in dispute, the point remains that a Kentucky city has climbed into the charts. So it is very good that this week the University of Louisville voted to offer health benefits to domestic partners of employees. The University of Kentucky here in Lexington will likely follow suit.

Such news concerning basic fairness brings excitement to progressive Kentuckians. Unfortunately it also exposes the bigotry that is present.

Editorial: The Wrong Kind of People

Summary:
Kentucky State Senator Dick Roeding called the U of L decision to offer health benefits "repulsive" and said "I don't want to entice any of those people into our state. Those are the wrong kind of people."

When the Log Cabin Republicans called for his resignation, a Kentucky newspaper called the Republican Senator for comment. He asked who were the Log Cabin Republicans. The reporter informed him that they were a gay rights organization within the GOP. Senator Roeding said, "Oh, a bunch of queers."

[Jennifer5]

It's amazing to see how much one person can hate another, for no reason at all....

[Daniel]

Originally Posted by Editorial

You get the sense that if Roeding were born in another century he might be opposing the end of slavery, or the immigration of the Irish - they, too, were the wrong kind of people in their day. The gay rights movement has fought long and hard to bring American consciousness along, and it is a fight not yet finished. The country remains divided over the definition of marriage, and whether it must involve one of each gender; reasonable people may disagree. But mostly, America - led really by business, not government - has gotten to the point that job benefits for domestic partners are about fair.

Ah....so he thinks we're the wrong kind of people? Cole Porter wrote a lovely song that comes to mind (the recent movie glossed over Porter's sexuality and relationships btw- in effect- making him more hetero than he really was.). He may have had Mr. Roeding's lack of manners in mind when he wrote it. The lyric, in part:

Why Do The Wrong People Travel

Travel they say improves the mind,
An irritating platitude
Which frankly, entre nous,
Is very far from true.
Personally I’ve yet to find
That longitude and latitude
Can educate those scores
Of monumental bores
Who travel in groups and herds
And troupes
Of various breeds and sexes,
Till the whole world reels
To shouts and squels
And the clicking of Rolleiflexes.

Why do the wrong people travel,
Travel, travel.
When the right people stay back home?
What compulsion compels them
And who the hell tells them
To drag their bags to Zanzibar
Instead of staying quietly in Omaha?
The Taj Mahal
And the Grand Canal
And the sunny French Riveria
Would be less oppressed
If the Middle West
Would settle for somewhere rather nearer.
Please do not thing that I criticize or cavil
At a genuine urge to roam,
But why oh why do the wrong people travel
When the right people stay back home?

[Jennifer5]

seems like it could be a good song...

[nowvoyager]

Thanks, Jamie, for pointing me to that news editorial. How annoying - the wrong kind of people.. indeed
It is heartening that his statements have been challenged so eloquently by the editorial though, especially the last sentence: "What Roeding and others like him are really doing is marginalizing an entire segment of the population. That's not just wrong, it's stupid."

Daniel - I just love your musical references, pal