Gov. Jan Brewer, state Attorney General Tom Horne and other Arizona officials who are trying to deny health-care benefits for the same-sex partners of state employees are bigots.
This is not a controversial statement. This is not up for debate. Open up the dictionary (I am using the online version of Merriam-Webster here), and look up "bigot," and you'll see this description: a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices.
By that definition, Brewer, Horne and others are bigots. Again, this is not up for debate.
I say this, because yet again, this group has tried to take away domestic-partner medical benefits that former Gov. Janet Napolitano extended to state workers. They are asking the Arizona Supreme Court to overturn other court rulings that said taking these rights away would be unconstitutional, because it's illegal to exclude a specific group from rights available to others.
"In legal papers ... Attorney General Tom Horne said lawmakers should be allowed to deny such benefits because it 'furthers the state's interest in promoting marriage,'" reported Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services.
Brewer, Horne and co. are obstinately or intolerantly devoted to their own opinions and prejudices when it comes to domestic-partner benefits. Bigots.
I bring this up (and I have brought it up before) to illustrate the fact that no matter how much some religious and/or culturally conservative folks claim to stand for tradition and (a narrow definition of) "family," and cite ambiguous Old Testament scripture (while ignoring less-ambiguous Old Testament commands), and even claim to "love" "sinners" in same-sex relationships, these people are bigots if they try to deny equal footing to gays and lesbians.
Bigots. Period. It says so right there in the dictionary.
