Iowa Lawmaker: Banning Gay Marriage Just Like Banning Barefoot People from Burger King

On some level, you have to hand it to Iowa State Senator Merlin Bartz. Sen. Bartz made national news last month when he suggested that gay families should be denied certain privileges that straight families receive when they camp at Iowa campgrounds. Sen. Bartz was upset that the Iowa Department of Natural Resources was going to adjust their definition of family to include two married men or two married women, and their applicable children.

"They’re citing the Supreme Court case and changing, you know, ‘husband and wife’ language to ’spouse,’” Bartz said at the time. He later issued a demand that the Iowa Department of Natural Resources not recognize gay families as families.

But as ludicrous as that all sounds, Sen. Bartz is back in the news, and this time he's arguing that anti-gay discrimination gets a bum rap. He wants opponents of gay marriage to proudly claim that they support discrimination, and he's urging Iowa residents not to be ashamed of what he calls the "D" word.

"A basic precept of law is that it indeed does discriminate," said Bartz. "If the justification is rational, defensible and promotes an outcome that we as a society seek and cherish, the answer should be affirmative."

Bartz goes on to compare anti-gay discrimination with that of a restaurant that puts up a "No shoes, no shirt, no service" sign, or a grocery store that says they'll accept only local personal checks as a form of payment. Because telling two people they shouldn't be allowed to get married or shouldn't be considered a family is so just like McDonald's telling that dude from the beach to put his shirt on before ordering that Big Mac.

Bartz adds that people who oppose gay marriage don't really dislike gay people, but that their discrimination is based on respect for society's traditions. To call them bigots is, in Bartz's words, "regrettable."

One Iowa, Iowa's largest LGBT rights group, took Bartz to task for trying to argue that people should get a free pass for practicing discrimination.

"Senator Bartz can't have it both ways. We are grateful to live in a society that allows people to proudly and publicly proclaim their support for discrimination," One Iowa writes. "However, proponents of discrimination shouldn't play victim when those who have experienced the true slings and arrows of discriminatory policies call them out for their views."

Exactly. Sen. Bartz should have every right in the world to say that gay people don't belong on Iowa campgrounds, or that prohibitions on same-sex marriage are akin to telling that shoeless woman to stay out of a Burger King. But that principle extends both ways, meaning that advocates for equality have every right to call out Bartz's comments for what they really are: motivated by anti-gay bias, and an example of a politician championing discrimination.

Photo credit: The Consumerist