Domestic Partnerships: Mike Miller's Extended Dance Mix

As I said in my comment to David’s post below about the domestic partner home ownership bill, Andy Harris was in top form during the debate. But so was Mike Miller.

How this debate ends up will determine whether thousands of innocent people will be allowed to own their own home. It will determine whether thousands of people will continue to live in fear of losing their home if their partner dies.

Friday morning, as debate on one round of consideration of the bill wound down, after attacks against innocent gay people by Andy Harris and Alex Mooney, the Senate bell seemed to be malfunctioning. So, while waiting for it to ring, he started to sing the gay disco classic "Ring My Bell." I laughed, but my partner was furious. As he pointed out, for us and many others, this bill matters. It's about people’s lives. But Miller acts like it's all a game.

Sorry, Mike, but our lives aren't a game.

This comes after Miller told the press last year that he thinks that same-sex couples don’t need the legal rights that come with marriage (or even those lesser rights that would come with civil unions).

Now, it would be one thing to say that gay people are evil marriage-hating child-molesting monsters who shouldn’t have rights as couples. In that case it doesn’t matter that we need them – it’s a simple issue of not deserving them.

But as far as I know, Miller has never sided with the Christian Right (or its political arm, the modern Republican Party) on the “gays are out to destroy society” canard.

So maybe it was just a stupid, thoughtless comment based on complete ignorance. But I don’t think so – Miller is not stupid, and what he says is based on careful thought and crafty political strategy. That’s why he’s been able to remain Senate president almost since the colonial era.

But when he makes flip comments that couples like me and my partner don’t need rights – or when he sings gay disco classics as his fellow senators work to deprive us of our rights and our homes - he needs to know how he comes across to people who lives are affected by the bills he shepherds through the Senate chamber.

Some of us were listening to the floor debate barely able to breathe, waiting for the outcome.

Flip brush-offs and 70s flashbacks are fine when you’re considering bills to designate walking as the official state exercise or Smith Island Cake as the official state dessert.

But not here.