Gay marriage vote gives Rep. Scott Franklin, R-Lakeland, a chance to be a unifying statesman

Opposing it means he hopes the Supreme Court will allow forcible divorce of his gay constituents. Which is better, Scott? Which wars against which constituents do you want to fight?

Rep. Scott Franklin’s only significant act as congressman so far was terribly divisive and insulting. The Lakeland Republican voted to reject the results of 2020 presidential election — even after the Capitol Lynch Mob of January 6.

It was an act of fundamental disrespect to his fellow citizens, unjustified by any legitimate protest reason. Endless legal election challenges had been rejected as frivolous, even by the corrupt right wing Supreme Court, which includes a justice whose spouse actively sought to overturn the election fraudulently.

Scott Franklin has done or said nothing noteworthy since, largely carrying on his predecessor Dennis Ross’ record of simply taking up Congressional space and nodding along with the grossest, most tiresome GOP talking points about owning the libs, etc. He wears the politically correct team jersey; and that’s enough.

I have heard, second and third-hand, through various whispers, that Scott doesn’t really enjoy lib-owning and pretending to like Jim Jordan and Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor-Greene. I have heard that he would prefer to collaborate productively with his fellow citizens, even the libs.

Moreover, I think this particular moral abomination continues to embarrass him, as it should.

Well, Scott Franklin now has a popular, bi-partisan, low-risk way to demonstrate a new direction.

Pick a side, Scott. Forced divorce or respect for marriage

The Senate this week voted to advance — and almost certainly approve — a landmark federal same sex marriage law. It requires in statute that every state recognize a same sex marriage performed in any other state. But it does not require any state to issue a same sex wedding license itself. The bill also protects churches from any mandates — which don’t exist anyway, but fine — to perform or bless same sex weddings. I fully support that.

The Senate came up with this reasonable civic compromise because Clarence Thomas, while he was undoing protection against forced birth, also openly suggested undoing the Supreme Court case that legalized civil same sex marriage a few years ago.

Thomas is holding out hope that states — or the federal government — can eventually impose divorce on Polk County’s married gay couples. I can’t think of a more morally despicable, freedom-hating, life-intruding position.

Here are the Republican Senators who voted to protect gay citizens from that possibility of forced divorce:

• Susan Collins of Maine

• Lisa Murkowski of Alaska

• Rob Portman of Ohio

• Mitt Romney of Utah

• Thom Tillis of North Carolina

• Roy Blunt of Missouri

• Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming

• Richard Burr of North Carolina

• Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia

• Dan Sullivan of Alaska

• Joni Ernst of Iowa

• Todd Young of Indiana

Good for them.

Assuming this is formally approved by the Senate in its “lame duck” session, the House of Representatives will also have to approve it in its “lame duck” session.

If he needs a spine, those Republican Senate votes should give Scott Franklin the spine he needs to vote in the moral, civically productive way,

And support for legal gay marriage has reached 71 percent, far outperforming any presidential candidate. It’s more popular than Ron DeSantis by a long shot.

So being a political chickenshit is no excuse for anyone. If you vote to divorce gay people, it’s because you want to.

I hope Scott Franklin chooses to strengthen marriage rather than potentially dissolving it. I hope he chooses statesmanship, not Jordan-ism and Boebert-ism and Gaetz-ism.

The strongest election cycle for the humanity of gay people in Polk County history

Moreover, the humanity of gay and trans citizens, through no fault or request of their own, has been on the ballot in the grossest and most vicious of ways here in Polk County, Florida. That humanity, I’m happy to say, won handily.

The core of the fake “anti-woke” agenda is just menacing vulnerable citizens for sport. You know it; I know it. Everybody knows it. Any excesses or potential excesses of “woke” can be easily, respectfully addressed in the exact same way the Senate just did it with gay marriage.

There is no need to terrorize human beings unless you like it, like Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump do. That is their inseparable thread. They like terrorizing human beings so they can grift them. Not everyone recognizes that about DeSantis yet; but they will.

The vanquished CCDF universe in Polk County, awash in criminality, criminal support, and personal criminal background, also enjoyed terrorizing human beings. CCDFers had the nerve to place hatred of law-abiding gay and trans people and weird CCDF sex obsessions at the core of their dead “movement” — with the quiet tacit support of Sheriff Grady Judd and State Attorney Brian Haas.

There’s a reason the book-banners chose Beloved and books about gay kids to try to ban. It had nothing to do with books; it had everything to do with tormenting people they consider vulnerable. Just a raw, gross dominance play. Nothing more.

That gross movement, along with Grady Judd’s political reputation as anything more than a tired “anti-woke” talk show host, was smashed by the people of Polk County. Here are some of the historically signifiant moments:

• Kay Fields reading a PRIDE proclamation with great emotion in front of a packed house at a School Board Meeting. And then winning re-election. I wrote here about what an amazing and unexpected moment that was.

• The largest, most successful PRIDE rally in Polk County/Lakeland history.

• Lakeland Mayor Bill Mutz refusing to allow Lakeland Christian School (LCS) to strong-arm him into imposing its religious code on Bill’s welcoming civic behavior.

• Finally, Lisa Miller emphatically defeating the last CCDFer standing on a night Ron DeSantis romped in Florida.

The only setback was Rick “T.I.T.S.” Nolte’s 1-point win over Sarah Fortney, the first openly gay person ever elected to a school board in Florida history.

But Sarah never ran on her sexuality or marriage; generic partisanship is what mattered in that race; and Rick Nolte cheated and says he committed crimes to win.

If I had known that last part in June, Sarah Fortney would have won. I blame myself.

Truces are irrelevant; you are what you do

Amusingly, one of the grossest, most confrontational CCDF-adjacent GOPers came up to me at an event this week and asked for “unity” and a “truce.”

Funny how losing can convince aggressively gross people it’s time for a truce.

I just sort shrugged at him and politely noted various gross things this person did or excused in the last 18 months when he thought he was ascendant. But I wish I had said this, specifically:

I do not think about you at all unless you get in my space or the space of someone else in a menacing way. I have many better things to do with my life than think about any of the people who imagine themselves in battle with me personally. I care about you, my supposed enemies, only when you interfere with the development and defense of healthy, inclusive civic space.

This whole discussion is like a parody Putin/Ukraine. You’re the invader. You’re at war with “the libs,” not the other way around. No one needs to declare a truce. Just share our human space and the war ends.

At the same time — and this I know firsthand from multiple sources— many “respectable” folks in the Polk GOP have been very very very happy for me to do their dirty work with this “truce” person and the CCDFers in the last 18 months. That’s because the “respectable” folks — like Grady Judd and Brian Haas — lack the courage or will or ability to do it themselves.

I am now done covering for all of them, which I was never really doing, anyway. Our interests just aligned for a while.

Now, respectable GOP leaders, if you want our interests to remain aligned and to differentiate yourselves from “truce” person — or drag them with you into the more respectable space you supposedly occupy — I’ve just shown you a cost-free way to do it. It will send a message of “unity” and respect to your community.

It will be a way for Scott Franklin to atone for his Jan. 6 vote — and his gross Gaetz nonsense.

I hope Scott decides to take the right, moral step in defense of marriage. And I hope all of you remember that you are what you do in public, not the excuses you make in private.