Last month, voters in Maine, Maryland and Washington endorsed same-sex marriage, the first time marriage equality has ever been expanded by a popular vote. This has prompted many conservatives to wonder whether their opposition to equality might be a long-term electoral liability. Conservative columnist George Will was on "This Week" this week when the topic came up:  

Quite literally, the opposition to gay marriage is dying.

During a major shift of public opinion like this, it must be hard for a politician to know whether to stand by their increasingly unpopular positions or to abandon their previous views. It remains to be seen whether Missouri's Vicky Hartzler will grudgingly accept marriage equality or soldier on in the culture war that she started in 2004. She led the effort to pass a constitutional ban on gay marriage and she has continued to say cruel and insensitive things about her fellow citizens since coming to Congress in 2010.   These charts show the changes in approval rates over time for interracial marriage and for same-sex marriage. Draw your own conclusions about long Vicky can keep getting elected if she sticks to her homophobic guns.  

( – promoted by Michael Bersin)

In 2004, before she ran for Congress, Vicky Hartzler was the spokesperson for the campaign to amend the Missouri Constitution to outlaw same sex marriages and civil unions. A Massachusetts court had just ruled in favor of marriage equality, so some on the religious right were nervous, upset and willing to work to prevent gay people from getting legal recognition for their relationships. On July 27, 2004, Hartzler went on a Christian radio show to promote her crusade against marriage equality. In the course of the 15 minute interview, Hartzler draws comparisons between gay marriage and 10 different things that are very different from gay marriage. Here’s her list:

1. Untested social experiment

2. 12-year-olds with driver’s licenses

3. Blind people with driver’s licenses

4. Impersonating a doctor

5. Counterfeit $20 bills

6. Driving 90 miles per hour

7. Three people getting married

8. Five people getting married

9. Polygamy

10. A man marrying a horse

Here is a 2 minute video highlighting each of the items above:

And here is the full 15 minute interview:

Here’s a transcript of the full interview.

Hartzler is running for reelection this year in Missouri’s 4th Congressional District. If you would like to be represented by someone who doesn’t go on the air and compare same-sex relationships to man-on-horse sex, then you might want to vote for her opponent, Teresa Hensley.

Want more proof that while Republicans like to talk up jobs, that’s not what really gets them moving: From Think Progress:

So far this Congress, anti-LGBT Republicans have introduced at least ten major anti-gay bills, resolutions, and amendments in the U.S. House of Representatives. While 144 Members of Congress have sponsored or co-sponsored at least one of the proposals, seven signed on to five or more of the pro-discrimination measures, a ThinkProgress analysis reveals.

I’m sure that few of my fellow Missourians will be surprised to learn that prominent among the seven Republicans who have at least five instances of LGBT attack legislation under their belts are our own Reps. Todd Akin (R-2) and Vicky Harzler (R-4). After all,  Hartzler was singled out by MotherJones during her campaign for Congress in 2010 as perhaps the single most homophobic candidate for public office in America. Akin, as we all know, lives in fear of the “gay agenda” (which he evidently believes to be the personal agenda of President Obama, as in “The president has repealed Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and is using the military as a prop to promote his gay agenda.”)

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Lexington) would allow the Military Readiness Enhancement Act come up for a vote before the full House Armed Services Committee. (Skelton chairs the committee.) If passed, the bill would repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” rule, which bans lesbian, gay, and transgender Americans from serving their country in the military openly with honor. The bill’s lead sponsor is Rep. Patrick Murphy, the first Iraq War vet to be elected to Congress.

Rep. Murphy has launched a website called LetThemServe.com will be participating on a national tour that will be stopping in Kansas City. The website is a hub for soldiers and civilians to share their reasons for passing the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” rule.

From Rep. Murphy’s interview with The Advocate, something I didn’t know:

The fact that we’ve let go over 13,000 troops since it’s been implemented and over 65 Arabic translators — that’s over three combat brigades that we’ve let go. When we’re fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, we need every qualified, able-bodied individual to serve.

Three combat brigades just let go from the military… and 65 Arabic translators!! It is beyond contempt to bar Americans from serving honorably, purely based on prejudice, at any time, let alone at a time when we relaxed standards to do anything we could to keep up with recruiting goals.