Mass. Gay Rights Ruling May Prompt Va. Clampdown

How do you tighten restrictions on something you've already banned? You can't, like, ban it more. Unless perhaps you "double secret" ban it.

Never mind. The important thing here is this passage:

"I don't want to live next door to people who have a same-sex relationship and have children and have my children playing with them," said Del. Emmett C. Burns (D-Baltimore County), who plans to sponsor the bill prohibiting Maryland from recognizing same-sex marriages in other states.

That language should sound familiar to people in this area. Just change it to be about blacks rather than gay couples, and you call up the ghosts of the civil rights era from 35 years ago. Race riots consumed D.C. and destroyed neighborhoods; school desegregation met with great opposition. And it was illogical xenophobic attitudes, like those of Mr. Burns, that fueled the hatred.

By the way, here's Del. Burns' picture:



You've come a long way, baby.