The trendline on marriage equality is moving in the right direction -- but not on on Capitol Hill.
In the post below on Uruguay, I mentioned the upcoming House hearing on marriage. While nations around the world are expanding equality, GOP members of Congress are heading in the opposite direction.
The hearing, scheduled for Friday, is being held by the House Judiciary Committee's "Subcommittee on the Constitution." That's classic. But, we've seen many times before that homophobes on Capitol Hill are willing to use the Constitution to discriminate and divide. And, as Chris Johnson reported, the hearing will be chaired by Rep. Trent Franks, who is especially homophobic:
The hearing, which is set to take place before the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, is scheduled to begin at 10 am in Room 2141 of the Rayburn House Office Building.Can't wait to see the witness list. I imagine Maggie Gallagher is vying for a spot. Maybe they'll get a Catholic Bishop, too.
As of Friday, no witness list was posted on the committee website, nor was the intent the hearing immediately known. Whether the likely impending shutdown of the federal government would cancel or postpone the hearing also wasn't immediately clear.
Charlotte Sellmyer, a House Judiciary Committee spokesperson, said more information would be available next week.
"Per our office policy, we release background and witness information one day prior to the hearing, so please check back in with us next week," Sellmyer said.
Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), chair of the committee, has said President Obama could be impeached for his decision to drop his administration's defense of the Defense of Marriage Act in court, and the upcoming hearing would likely represent his views.
In a March interview with Think Progress, Franks said he supports defunding the Justice Department if it doesn’t defend DOMA and added he would “absolutely” favor impeaching Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder if support for doing so “could gain collective support.”
Besides Trent Franks, there are some real whackos on the GOP side of this committee, including Mike Pence (R-IN), Steve King (R-IA) , Steve Chabot (R-OH), Randy Forbes (R-VA) and Jim Jordan (R-OH). Yeah, it's some of the worst of the worst haters.
