Demagogue

Jimbo updates my post yesterday on the bill to repair some of the collateral damage from Utah's Hate Amendment. Although the article I had read said the bill looked like passing, the Utah Senate shot it down on Tuesday.

The bill would have provided for a contract, registered with the state Department of Heath, granting the right to visit a partner in the hospital, make informed consent medical decisions, dispose of a dead partner's remains and make organ donation decisions, and give joint tenancy rights to property acquired while under the contract. Any two unmarried adults who can't legally marry would have qualified for the contract.

It turns out that the possibility that the bill might help gays and lesbians outweighed the fact that it would also help other non-married people living together, such as elderly siblings living together. This in spite of the fact that Utah's Republican governor favored the bill.

I think the first problem was that the senator who sponsored the bill represents a place called Fruit Heights. They should have got the guy from Manly Gulch to do it.

Then there was the metaphor of the day:

Earlier, in a lunchtime Senate Republican Caucus, Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Draper, assailed the bill as a Trojan horse for gay rights. "I'm sure gay couples would like to ride the coattails of two widows to advance their cause," said Christensen, one of the original sponsors of Amendment 3 [the Hate Amendment].

Yes, we'd better make sure the elderly can't get treated humanely if that might advance the fearsome "Gay Agenda."

Then there was the spin from the interest groups on both sides.

Gayle Ruzicka, president of the Utah Eagle Forum, which opposed the bill, said it would have been an apology for Amendment 3, and "an apology is just not needed."

Michael Mitchell, president of Equality Utah, said: "I find it disheartening that they are letting fear get in the way of creating a law that makes easier to access the system. It just really saddens me."