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ICYMI: Congressman Scott Garrett takes his bigotry out of the closet [THE STAR-LEDGER]

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

ICYMI: Congressman Scott Garrett takes his bigotry out of the closet

The Star-Ledger

By Editorial Board

July 21, 2015

http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/07/post_135.html

Just last week, U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett signed on to a measure that would allow private firms to deny service at gay weddings if doing so would offend their religious sensibilities.

Garrett (R-5th) wouldn’t discuss his reasons. We wanted to ask whether it would be okay with him if private firms treated interracial marriages the same way. And we wanted to make sure he understood that no house of worship is compelled to hold such a service, or to recognize its legitimacy. This is about equal treatment under the law, nothing more.

The religion card, it seems to us, is sometimes used a cover for a more ugly motivation — flat-out bigotry against gays.

Now, presto, Garrett has confirmed those fears. In a closed meeting among Republican members of the House Financial Service Committee Friday, Garrett stunned his fellow party members by refusing to pay dues to the National Republican Congressional Committee because it sometimes supports homosexual candidates for Congress. The report, from Politico, relied on several anonymous sources who were present.

Garrett himself on Monday confirmed his objection to the party’s support of gay candidates in a conversation with Bob Yudin, the Republican chairman in Bergen County, which includes the bulk of Garrett’s district.

“He said that is one reason (he would not donate), but there are many others,” Yudin said, as if that softens the blow.

Where does Yudin himself stand? He says gays are welcome in the party, but he had no objection to Garrett’s view that they should not run for Congress.

What a welcome: We’ll take your votes, but we won’t lift a finger when the bigots come after you!

Others Republicans in New Jersey objected unequivocally: “There is no room in our party for that kind of discrimination,” said Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R-Union), the majority leader. “I will not stand for it.”

He responded by donating $5,000 to John Traier, an openly gay candidate for Assembly and the party chairman in Passaic County, which includes two towns in Garrett’s district.

Traier called Garrett’s office on Friday to object, but had received no response by late Monday afternoon. “It’s just wrong,” he said. “We have to get out of that mindset.”

Make no mistake: Garrett’s position is the moral equivalent of excluding African-American candidates, or women, or Latinos. It does violence to Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream that all Americans will someday be judged by the content of their characters. It is grounds to remove him from office, and our fervent hope is that he is eventually knocked off by a more sensible Republican or Democrat.

Weeding out anti-gay bigots like Garrett is a challenge for Republicans who want to broaden the party’s appeal. We were reminded of that again Monday when former Texas Gov. Rick Perry said the Boy Scouts would be “better off” if they banned gay scout leaders who dared to step outside the closet.

The debate often focuses on fake cover stories, like Garrett’s claim that denying services to gay wedding is about religious freedom.

The law threads that needle by making a distinction between private behavior and public. A house of worship is generally free to discriminate, as are private clubs. But when a business opens its doors to the public, the standards are different. And for good reason. Imagine an America where each merchant on a street was free to exclude his least favorite group.

There is an echo here when it comes to voting rights. Republicans, including Gov. Chris Christie, have cited concerns about fraud to limit access to the voting booth in ways that do the greatest damage to poor and minority voters. Whether those actions are motivated by bigotry or unrestrained partisanship is almost immaterial.

The fraud concern is a fake, and the victims are minority voters. Garrett’s concern over religious freedom is fake, too, and the victims are gays.

Garrett represents the state’s conservative suburbs, mostly in Bergen and Sussex counties. But our sense is that anti-gay bigotry in New Jersey is dying out, in both red and blue regions. Our hope is that Garrett’s days are numbered, and that this shameful episode starts that ball rolling.





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