Three Tears For Wisconsin

I am sad to report that this erstwhile progressive state has taken a shift to the right/red.

Yesterday Wisconsin voters joined voters in seven other states to approve of amendments on the ballot to ban gay marriage (South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho and South Dakota. As an aside, I am not so proud to say that I have lived in three of those eight states.)

This is relatively surprising given that Wisconsin was the first state to pass an "employment non-discrimination act" that protects GLBT workers from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

I can't help but believe that, given that 85 percent of Americans belive that GLBT folks should have equal rights, on the gay marriage issue, most people are simply misinformed.

From the Associated Press:

Lorri Pickens, campaign manager for Vote Yes for Marriage, said Wisconsin voters wanted to prevent "activist judges" from potentially legalizing gay marriage.

"People understand that the institution of marriage is an important rockbed and foundation for our communities," Pickens said.

For the life of me, I can't understand how extending the rights of marriage to more monogamous couples (some with kids, some without) threatens this 'rockbed'.

And this:

Betty Wilber, 58, a paper mill worker from Shawano, said her religious beliefs compelled her to vote in favor of the marriage amendment.

"I don't think it was God's right to have two men and two women together," she said.

Let's just agree to leave God out of this, okay? Lock the church doors, but just let me leave my pension to BioMom and let me visit her in the hospital without you getting all up in my business, and we'll call it even, okay?

In addition to the gay marriage fiasco:

In another referendum asking voters whether Wisconsin should lift its longstanding ban on the death penalty in certain cases, 53.9 percent of voters said yes in unofficial returns from 50 percent of precincts.

What are people thinking?