Much attention has been focused this week on rural Rhea County, Tennessee, whose commission enacted, then rescinded (following a burst of national publicity) a proposal to ban gays from living in their midsts. Commissioner J.C. Fugate, who proposed the original motion (passed unanimously by the 8-member panel), had said: "I'd like to make a motion that those kind of people cannot live in Rhea County or abide in Rhea County."
The commission meets in the town of Dayton, Tenn., famous as the locale for the "monkey trial" that convicted John Scopes of teaching evolution in the 1920s, and immortalized (if fictionalized) in the play and movie "Inherit the Wind." As described in one news account, the scene sounded like something out of that earlier drama:
When [commissioners] entered the meeting room in groups of four, there was a loud audience cheering and booing. "Thank you J.C., we appreciate you doing this," resident June Griffin shouted. Many in the packed crowd, which spilled out into the way, carried home-made signs advocating human rights. One of them read: "The gluttons are next."
Gee, even our supporters in Rhea County don't seem to "get it."
Addendum: After reading the above, a
correspondent writes:
Maybe I'm a little biased because Tennessee is one of my home states, but I'd give the people carrying "The gluttons are next" posters in Dayton a little more credit. They were just fighting fire with fire and a little irony. And it doesn't hurt to remind fundamentalists that they too contradict the literal word of the Bible.
Maybe, but the "we don't forbid other vices" argument is more pervasive than you might imagine.
Odd Allies.
Looks like popular rapper "50 cent" and J.C. Fugate are in
agreement.