Andre Walker, the controversial Republican blogger at Georgia Unfiltered, says it’s time for the state to repeal its ban on same-sex marriage. The basic reason? It would save Georgia a lot of money.
In the blog titled “The Time has Come: Repeal Georgia’s Gay Marriage Amendment” posted Jan. 15, Walker writes that in light of the recent rulings in Utah and Oklahoma, it was time for Georgia to just go ahead and repeal the state constitutional amendment approved in 2004 by 76 percent of voters to define marriage as only between a man and a woman. And, he says, do it this year. He writes:
Now we are seeing federal judges, in so-called conservative states, strike down government-sanctioned moral standards similar to the one enacted by Georgia lawmakers ten years ago.
Utah’s gay marriage ban was struck down. Oklahoma’s gay marriage ban was struck down. Could Georgia be next? It is difficult to tell. [Actually it’s not — no lawsuits have yet been filed in Georgia challenging the marriage ban]. But Georgia can avoid the acrimony and legal costs associated with lawsuits challenging its gay marriage ban by simply repealing it.
Instead of having a federal judge order the state to begin issuing marriage licenses to everyone, the Georgia General Assembly can say we are returning to our conservative principles and willingly repealing the state’s gay marriage ban.
There is still time to do that. There is still time to make that bold move, and send shock waves throughout the nation. The 2014 legislation session just started its work, and I challenge any conservative lawmaker — Republican or Democrat — to introduce a resolution repealing Georgia’s gay marriage amendment.
The tide really is turning. But it should be noted that Walker, once a Democrat, has always supported marriage equality.
Walker says he was an intern at the Gold Dome in 2004 when the same-sex marriage debates raged on the floor, in the hallways, on the front steps and in the media. At that time he was a Democrat, switching to the GOP in 2010 “because of ideology.”
Walker quotes the late state Rep. Bobby Franklin (R-Marietta), a firebrand who believed in as little government as possible, who essentially said, “What business does government have saying who should wed who?” as paraphrased in a report by Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Jim Galloway.
Good question. Something LGBT people have been asking since the beginning of time.
It should also be noted that Walker is a controversial figure in some political circles. He apparently blogged on behalf of political candidates he was working for but didn’t disclose this information to his readers — very much a conflict of interest for political bloggers expected to be taken seriously.
Walker is also likely tilting at windmills asking someone in the legislature to introduce a bill this year to repeal the ban in such a red, red state. And who knows who he is trying to impress and clickbait with this blog (and it obviously got me to click).
Georgia LGBT activists are not all expecting anything to happen on the marriage equality front for at least the next three to five years. Georgia Equality just recently launched its “Why Marriage Matters Georgia Campaign” and is seeking to raise a fast $50,000 to get the campaign off the ground with a total capital campaign of $10 million.
Marriage equality is not going to come as easily as a GOP blog post and the truth that tons of taxpayer money will be saved in the long run, obviously. Because in the “city too busy to hate,” there’s always time for many of our legislators to hate certain people.