Homobigotry in Hoosierland

It’s not hard to believe that in this reddest of red states, my loved and hated Indiana, the first state called for Bush on every newscast I watched on election day, there’s a bunch of GOP numpties trying to ramrod the anti-gay agenda, embraced and encouraged so wantonly by the homobigots currently running the GOP, through our state legislature. But even though it’s expected, it still sucks nuts. At least we’ve got some protestors down south, too:

When the speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives held a fundraiser in Downtown Indianapolis on Monday night, demonstrators were waiting for him.

The Indiana Action Network disagrees with Rep. Brian Bosma's backing of a proposed amendment to the Indiana Constitution to ban same-sex marriages. Bosma's event was at the Rathskeller Restaurant in the Massachusetts Avenue district, which the group says has a high concentration of gay and lesbian businesses.

"Bosma is apparently willing to promote Mass. Ave's businesspeople as artists and tourist draws while simultaneously advocating the curtailing of human rights for those very same people," Jerame Davis, the organization's president, said in a statement.

Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said he's held a legislative fundraiser at the Rathskeller for eight years now, and he's not ready to change the location.

"I'm not overly concerned about any protest," Bosma said. "We will just have to agree to disagree on this issue."

Okay, how’s this sound to you, Brian? You’ll disagree that it’s inappropriate to keep exploiting the gay district while trying to pass legislation codifying discrimination against gays, and we’ll disagree with anyone who says you’re not a useless plonker. Agreed?

Bleh.

This could come up for a statewide vote as soon as 2007. I hope it never gets that far, but if it does, Brian and his phobic pals had better brace themselves for quite a rumble in the northwest corner of the state.

(Thanks to Shaker and Julien’s List contributor Holly for the pointer.)