SLATE: Bernie Sanders Claims He’s a Longtime Champion of Marriage Equality.

[MADem]

262. Wait a minute--his "position on DOMA" was that "marriage is a STATE issue" -- he

was consistent on his view about the states' rights to decide what marriage is...but is that a GOOD THING, really?

Like I keep saying, the rights of persons can't be left up to the whims of sometimes mouth-breathing states. The federal government needs to lead on these issues.

We could use an Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution, too, so that half our population will no longer be treated as second class citizens.

I wouldn't leave "rights of women" up to the states, either.

I am using "states rights" because I want to invoke and evoke a specific image--the image of a state feeling free to deny a person their full personhood, because of an element of their being. With slaves, it was skin color, with gay people, it's their orientation, and with women, it's their gender. When a politican says leave it to the states, that is what is meant--that the state has a RIGHT, separate from the federal government, to decide how they will treat their citizens. When it comes to human rights, I don't think states have that right. They can decide when liquor stores are opened, and they can force you to sit in your car while someone else pumps your gas, but they should not be able to deprive you of human rights--and when people are treated differently, and made to feel inferior, that is what is happening.