Lesbians and gay men take a certain sort of disgusted pleasure in seeing vigorous opponents of lesbian/gay rights shown to be complete hypocrites. As the latest example, meet Jim Gibbons, Governor of Nevada. The Nevada legislature has passed two pieces of lesbian/gay rights legislation. One prohibits employment discrimination. The other provides for domestic partnerships for same-sex couples.
Mr. Gibbons apparently intends to veto the domestic partnership legislation. He says it is already possible to achieve the effects of domestic partnership through private contract, making the law unnecessary. First, I doubt that. If the domestic partnership law really reproduces all the rights and privileges of marriage, it probably contains provisions granting tax benefits, rights to intestate succession, and testamentary immunity, among others, that no private contract can confer.
Secondly, and one has to wonder if this is not the underlying issue, a state-sponsored domestic partnership registry would confer a measure of public recognition on same-sex couples that conservatives would prefer that they not have. Not all conservatives want to stone us all to death. Some would be content just to have us remain silent. So sorry, not gonna do it.
Oh, right, Mr. Gibbons’ hypocrisy – it seems this defender of the sanctity of marriage is busy getting divorced after public revelations of his affair with a Playboy model, and his having sent over 860 text messages to another woman on his state cell phone. During the election campaign, he was accused of sexual assault. Classy guy. A real model for our youth. Right up there with Newt Deliver Divorce Documents to your Wife in the Hospital Gingrich, or Bill Belly up to the Craps Table Bennett, or Rush Just One More Oxycontin Limbaugh. Shining examples all.