{"id":8090,"date":"2010-09-26T15:05:40","date_gmt":"2010-09-26T22:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bradblog.com\/?p=8090"},"modified":"2010-09-27T00:12:29","modified_gmt":"2010-09-27T07:12:29","slug":"rights-win-haters-lose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=8090","title":{"rendered":"Rights Win, Haters Lose"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Images\/Prop8Overturn_EqualEqualsEqual.jpg\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"3\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">&#8212; <i>Brad Friedman<\/i><\/p>\n<p>As horrible as things seem right now &#8212; with sociopathic loons on one side of the aisle, cowardly failures on the other, a mainstream corporate media completely out of touch with virtually everything that matters, an economy in which everyone but the rich are gasping for air &#8212; there is one very bright spot on which we can all take great comfort.<\/p>\n<p>Rights win.<\/p>\n<p>It rarely happens immediately, and almost never without a far-too-long struggle, but rights for we, the people, almost always eventually win in this nation &#8212; usually against all odds, avarice, greed and ignorance &#8212; but our Constitution is brilliant enough that rights eventually win out.<\/p>\n<p>If you have any doubt, look no further than the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/26315908\/ns\/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show\/#39352146\">latest news<\/a> (<i>video posted below<\/i>) heralding the last dying gasps of institutionalized homophobia in our laws and in our military.<\/p>\n<p>The good news is: the haters have lost. The question which played such an enormous &#8212; if entirely trumped up &#8212; role in our Presidential elections just 6 years ago has been all but finally settled.<\/p>\n<p>Well before the end of this decade (and likely far sooner than that, perhaps even before the end of Obama&#8217;s first term in office), marriage equality for gays and lesbians will be recognized in every state in the union, and homosexuals will be as welcome in our nation&#8217;s military as African-Americans.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s over. The good guys have won. In these quiet victories of rights over wrongs, we can all take some quiet comfort, even in these maddening, ugly days&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Images\/EqualRightsUnderTheLaw_March.jpg\"><\/center><\/p>\n<p>The bad guys may not have come to terms with it yet, they may not have even noticed yet, but they have lost. The Constitutional <i>right<\/i> to <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Equal_Protection_Clause\">&#8220;equal protection&#8221;<\/a> under the law eventually wins. And there is nothing that all of the hateful politicians, brain-dead media and disinformed citizenry can do to change that.<\/p>\n<p>Just for the record, on Friday, the George W. Bush-appointed judge who had previously rejected an Air Force Major&#8217;s lawsuit contesting her discharge from the service under &#8220;Don&#8217;t Ask Don&#8217;t Tell&#8221; (DADT), after being outed by a third party, has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/26315908\/ns\/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show\/#39352146\">reversed his previous finding and ordered that she now be re-instated<\/a>. Her rights were violated when she was discharged through no fault of her own.<\/p>\n<p>That follows another finding by a federal judge just two weeks ago that DADT was an <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=8059\">unconstitutional violation of First Amendment rights<\/a>, which followed the finding of a federal judge a few weeks before that California&#8217;s Prop 8 constitutional ban on same sex marriage was <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=7975\">also unconstitutional<\/a>, all of which follow one finding after another by one (Conservative) court after another over the past one, two, three, six years (eg. <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=7039\">here<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=6495\">here<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=5991\">here<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=160\">here<\/a>) that gay people cannot be discriminated against when it comes to their right to marriage.<\/p>\n<p>In 2004, in one of our earliest postings, amidst all the phony <em>sturm und drang<\/em> about it, <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=15\">we told you<\/a> that &#8220;gay marriage&#8221; was a &#8220;done deal&#8221;. And so it is, or will soon very much be.<\/p>\n<p>As bad as everything seems right now &#8212; actually <i>is<\/i> right now &#8212; take heart. Rights will always win. Eventually. We <i>shall<\/i> overcome.<\/p>\n<p>(And there&#8217;s nothing Fox &#8220;News&#8221;, evil Republicans, cowardly Democrats, deviously disinformed Americans or anybody else who hates the Constitution and American Values can do about it. So have a nice weekend.)<\/p>\n<p><center><b>* * *<\/b><\/center><\/p>\n<p><i>MSNBC&#8217;s <\/i>Rachel Maddow Show<i> breaks the news of the latest federal court finding on Friday, ordering the re-reinstatement of Air Force Major Margaret Witt and interviews her about the decision&#8230;<\/i><\/p>\n<p><center><object width=\"420\" height=\"245\" id=\"msnbc7f41af\" classid=\"clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/32545640\" \/><param name=\"FlashVars\" value=\"launch=39352146&amp;width=420&amp;height=245\" \/><param name=\"allowScriptAccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"opaque\" \/><embed name=\"msnbc7f41af\" src=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/32545640\" width=\"420\" height=\"245\" FlashVars=\"launch=39352146&amp;width=420&amp;height=245\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" wmode=\"opaque\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" pluginspage=\"http:\/\/www.adobe.com\/shockwave\/download\/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash\"><\/embed><\/object><\/center><\/p>\n<p><i>Maddow discusses the Constitutional matters related to the case with Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley&#8230;<\/i><\/p>\n<p><center><object width=\"420\" height=\"245\" id=\"msnbc751d5e\" classid=\"clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/32545640\" \/><param name=\"FlashVars\" value=\"launch=39352205&amp;width=420&amp;height=245\" \/><param name=\"allowScriptAccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"opaque\" \/><embed name=\"msnbc751d5e\" src=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/32545640\" width=\"420\" height=\"245\" FlashVars=\"launch=39352205&amp;width=420&amp;height=245\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" wmode=\"opaque\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" pluginspage=\"http:\/\/www.adobe.com\/shockwave\/download\/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash\"><\/embed><\/object><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8212; Brad Friedman As horrible as things seem right now &#8212; with sociopathic loons on one side of the aisle, cowardly failures on the other, a mainstream corporate media completely out of touch with virtually everything that matters, an economy in which everyone but the rich are gasping for air &#8212; there is one very [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[272,309,441,126,127],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-8090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dept-of-defense","category-gay-marriage","category-rachel-maddow","category-rights-and-freedoms","category-the-constitution","bb-type-bradblog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8090"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=8090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}