What I want to know is...

Liz at Life as a Spectator Sport has a fantastic post on the social conservative agenda on gay marriage (the permalink seems to send you to her blog front page, so scroll down to February 18, 2004). [link]

Here's what she said that grabbed me:

We're going to see George Bush and the Republicans use the issue of homosexuality itself, not just gay marriage, as a way to divert attention from the sick economy, the increasing number of deaths in Iraq, the lies that got us into Iraq to begin with, and every other facet of his dysfunctional presidency. I've been wondering what he would come up with to scare the voters into keeping him in Washington. Now I know. Among other things, it's me, of all people (sorry, I know that's not grammatical, but it has more gut-level tension than 'Tis I').

I didn't realize I was that scary. I feel like stopping people on the street and asking, "Do I frighten you? If my partner and I got married, would that destroy your marriage? Would the fact that we could never have had children together make your relationship with your children any less significant?"

And I want to ask, "Will being afraid of me somehow create more jobs? Will it bring back the child or the spouse or the friend who died in Iraq? Will it balance the budget? What does it get you to be afraid of ME?"

We need to keep asking these questions in the days ahead.

"Will passing a constitutional marriage amendment get back the job you lost when your company moved its headquarters to Bermuda and its jobs to India?"

"Will denouncing me restore the Pell grant your college-aged child lost due to budget cuts?"

"Will calling me names bring back the money your school district no longer has?"

George, I'll still try to keep my discourse civil, but you just made the fight a personal one. You made me into some kind of monster, into a shibboleth to scare other people with. You made me, a pudgy middle-aged grandmother going gray at the temples and wobbly in the knees, into a weapon for you, and I won't have it.