So asked an energized young man (one Gabe Aderhold, as noted by Clarknt67) at a Tim Pawlenty Q&A today. (It happens at the very end of the clip).
Indeed, Mr. energized you man, Tim Pawlenty, and every other Republican candidate for President except Karger think you are a second class citizen. But that is not the point of this diary.
Pawlenty, it has to be said, handled the situation pretty well. Can you imagine Michelle Bachmann in the same situation? But that, too is not quite the point of this diary.
The point of this diary is really two points:
- This issue is not going to go away. If it was a question that rated in a Republican Presidential debate conducted by Fox News, then it is very likely we will see it come up again and again as the campaign and the debates continue.
With a supermajority of Americans supporting marriage equality or civil unions for same-sex couples, and with almost all the Republican candidates opposed to any form of legal recognition, I can't see any downside in having them keep spewing their bigoted opinions on this issue out to a national audience.
But more than that...
- The LGBT community and allies need to see to it that the sort of thing that happened in this video keeps happening.
We know that nothing is better for the promotion of equality than to have a human face at the center. Or better yet, two human faces who cannot get married; or are married and cannot get health insurance for their spouse.
Or better even yet, an entire LGBT family with irresistably cute kids confronting Republican candidates and asking
Do you consider us a second class family?
Seems like this might be great job/task/goal for organizations like GetEqual. Or just a spontaneous movement all across the country.
Confront them. Again. And again. And again. Not in the hope of changing their minds (hah!), but in the certainty that this will continue to help drive the narrative and public perception towards equality.
And who knows, it might even help a certain fierce advocate evolve.