Words calm and inflame

In light of the wonderful success Freedom Oklahoma had to head off the "Slate of Hate" (27 anti-gay and lesbian bills in the 2016 Oklahoma Legislative session) I can never know for sure but I think I feel like a black person might have felt after the signing of the 1964 Public Accommodations and 1965 Voting Rights Acts when black people were still abused and subjected to discrimination.  

Just as the 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education ending segregation in public schools did not immediately change the social environment, so will Obergefell v. Hodges not bring an immediate acceptance of marriage equality to America's gay and lesbian taxpayers. We will hear the echos and see the shadows of these cases for many years to come.
The lifetime views and hatreds of some people won't change overnight.  Just because the law can change so quickly words on paper rarely seem to calm as quickly as they inflame.

Just as discrimination based on skin color was not limited to the slave states, gay people are being dissed not only in the classic South. Many states across the country (Oklahoma, Missouri, Ohio, and Georgia just off the top of my head) also are trying to head off civil equality with laws using religion as a smokescreen for unequal treatment by government.    

Used in this way it does a disservice to those religious observers who object to the calumny used against fellow citizens in the disguise of freedom of thought.  Does the old fable of wolves in sheep's clothing conjure any memories?
As Dr. M. L. King said "It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important."   
Submitted by James Nimmo.

The Gayly - 3.19/2016 @ 9:34 a.m. CST