Ohioblog: A Swing State Journal: Knight Ridder Election 2004

Moral values? We're No. 1!

Ohioans joined voters in 10 other states in telling gays where they should go - which is not here, at least not if they want their relationships to be be recognized in a legal - or generous - way. By 3-to-2, Ohioans followed the lead of Cincinnatian Phil Burress and the Citizens for Community Values and voted to amend Ohio's constitution with the most far-reaching anti-gay marriage language in the country. And Burress, a former pornography addict gone straight, isn't finished. He told Bill Cohen of Ohio Public Radio's Statehouse News Bureau: ``We the people are the ones who run this country,'' Burress said. ``We the people are the ones who determine in this state what marriage ought to look like. Activist judges will have a day when they will pay. We have a database now in the hundreds of thousands and that database is not going to go to waste. We will be holding candidates accountable in the future on the moral issues here in the state of Ohio, whether it is right to life, the homosexual agenda or whatever it may be.'' If this is still a nation of laws in Ohio they are made by moralists.

Meanwhile, in the No. 1 moralist's backyard...

Talk about mixed messages. In Phil Burress' hometown of Cincinnati, voters by 65,082 to 55,934 repealed an article of the city's charter that fails to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination such as losing their jobs or being denied housing because they are gay. This clears the way for the Cincinnati City Council to pass a law protecting gays. How could this happen? Burress told The Enquirer in Cincinnati that the voters must have been confused. Someone is.

posted by Ohioblog: A Swing State Journal at 9:47 AM