Backroom Deals - 1. Backroom Deals

As soon as the Supreme Court announced its decision that the right to marry was protected under the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, social conservative heads began to explode. Not literally of course, but they couldn't believe they had lost this battle and hadn't gotten their way, so now all people had the right to marry whomever they chose. How were they going to live with this decision and were they now going to be forced to accept gays totally?

The day after this historic decision, social conservative think tanks began to ponder this very issue. Was the war concerning this topic now over and they had to abide by this decision, or did they still have other options to pursue? I'm not saying this was what transpired at each of those meetings, but I believe it gives a fair account and representation of what might have taken place at the various discussions.

"So is that it? Are we now forced to accept these freaks getting married and there's nothing we can do about it?" Charles shouted, his face red, the muscles in his body as tense as an over-tight guitar string and the veins in his neck bulging, almost ready to burst. The room was filled with important-looking business types in expensive suits that had come together to discuss this very issue.

"For now at least," Donald offered as his shoulder slumped forward in defeat. "Our only hope is to get a president elected that will nominate people to the court that think the same way we do. When that happens, then we will find a way to get this question brought before the court again and they can make a different decision; the one we want. Until then, there is nothing else we can do."

"That's not quite true," the leader of the discussion responded. His name was David and this caused everyone else in the room turn toward him and stare. "We can still try to play the 'religious freedom' card and allow those granting marriage licenses to refuse to do so based on moral and religious objections."

"Wasn't there a backlash to stop attempts to do something like that in certain states?" Chris asked, as he thought back to the previous uproar.

"We just have to phrase the proposals correctly to eliminate the objections to them," David countered shaking his finger.

"Isn't that heading down a very slippery slope though, allowing people to decide whether or not they are going to obey a certain law because of religious beliefs?" Ben followed looking unsure. "First of all, whose religious beliefs are we going by? What if a C.E.O. of a company is a Christian Scientist? Can he refuse to have his company provide health insurance because he doesn't believe in the use of medical procedures? Can he fire or refuse to hire anyone who uses a doctor? Or what about a Hindu that works as a cashier in a grocery store? Can that person refuse to sell others meat, because they believe all life is sacred and meat shouldn't be consumed?"

"If they have that strong of a belief, then maybe they shouldn't be working at a job where it creates a conflict," David answered, since he saw this example as being different.

"Couldn't that be said of any person claiming a strong religious conviction? Should anyone be allowed to work a job where they aren't willing to carry out all of the required duties? Should they then be forced to seek different employment?" Ben pressed, seeking clarification.

"Most people aren't smart enough to think of these arguments, so we shouldn't worry about them," David replied shaking his head. "However, if we aren't able to stop the homosexuals from getting married using that tactic, it doesn't mean we have to give up and just accept their gay agenda. There are other things we can do to prevent that."

"What the hell do you mean by that?" Rick asked, looking at him incredulously.

"It means we don't have to make things easy for them or accept their kind with open arms," David replied, looking smug. "There are plenty of things we can do to keep them as far away from us as possible for the time being and let someone else deal with them until we can get things changed. We should be able to prevent the communities we currently live in from turning into fucking drag shows with a bunch of limp-wristed daddies and cross-dressing mommies driving their kids to and from school and other functions."

"I believe very few of them are actually cross-dressers or even transvestites, so I expect we'll just be dealing with either two moms or two dads instead," Peter pointed out, since he didn't want to confuse the issue. "I'm afraid I don't see a way we can possibly stop that from happening though."

"Sure there is," David shot back looking confident. "First, we can see to it that laws are passed in the various states that will make it nearly impossible for them to have families in the first place. Since they aren't capable of having children the 'natural' way, we can start by preventing them from adopting children."

"That might stop some of them, but a lesbian will still be able to get pregnant using in vitro fertilization," John countered, as his body shivered almost imperceptibly at the thought.

"So we pass a law that only allows in vitro fertilization when it can be medically proven that the spouse's sperm isn't likely or capable of impregnating the wife in the normal way," David offered in response. "Since there would be no sperm involved with two lesbian partners, the process wouldn't be legal."

"What about two men then?" Ted followed, bringing up another issue. "Couldn't they still do it using a surrogate?"

"We'd just have to add the stipulation that any egg used in such a procedure would have to come from the person who would be raising the child as the result of this method," David countered, confident that he'd thought of a way to close all of the loopholes.

"What about just using surrogates in general?" Scott wondered, as he looked at David. "Wouldn't that create another problem?"

"We'll make another law that states surrogates are only allowed to make contractual agreements with couples that would be able to procreate normally, but have discovered a medical reason for why a surrogate would be necessary," David responded to end their concerns. "Since two men or two women wouldn't be able to procreate normally, they'd be excluded from contracting with a surrogate. If that doesn't work, then we may have to outlaw the use of surrogates completely. "

"Doesn't that fly in the face of anti-discrimination laws?" Chris followed looking perplexed. "How will we get around that?"

"Once we make the laws, it will take time to challenge them and we can keep appealing any adverse decisions all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary," David answered with an air of assuredness. "Doing that could take years to overturn the laws, so it would solve the problem for now. By the time the cases get to the Supreme Court we should have enough justices in place that will be more favorable with our views."

"You seem to have forgotten that it won't completely stop the gays from living or working in our communities, so we'll still be forced to put up with them," Rick snapped back, showing his frustration with the recent decision the court had made.

"First of all, in most situations there are no laws protecting gay workers," David quickly pointed out, seemingly please with himself. "We'll just have to make sure that those who agree with us will pledge not to hire any known gay applicants in the first place. If any manage to slip through the cracks, then we'll just get rid of them after the fact."

"We can't discriminate in housing either," George interjected. He'd been sitting quietly off to one side while taking this all in. "Aren't there federal laws to prevent it?"

"Not really, but there are some states with laws that ban it, although there are ways around that too," David replied with a gleam in his eye. "In those cases, the people who live in those areas where their neighbors pretty much think like they do can just get them together and agree that they won't sell their homes to homosexuals. They can even get the realtors to agree not to bring gay couples to their neighborhoods in the first place and direct them to other residential areas instead. Then, if one of those couples insists on seeing one of the properties that's up for sale and happens to make an offer, the owner can just reject it, raise the price or temporarily take the property off the market. Another option would be to have the realtor provide certain 'information' about the property or the area it's in that might discourage the gay couple from wanting to live there in the first place."

"Do you really think that will work?" Bobby wondered, looking skeptical.

"I'm sure they can make it work for the most part," David replied confidently. "When it doesn't work the way they want, then they can do other things that will make the couple want to leave the neighborhood later. Most of the better neighborhoods have local homeowner associations that they can direct to approve certain regulations that the gays won't like or agree with."

"Some of the normal people might not like those types of regulations either," Ted pointed out, looking dubious.

"Maybe not, but I'm sure they can endure any inconvenience until it has served its purpose," David suggested as his expression pleaded with the others not to make too much out of this. "They can always change those rules again later, if need be."

"But the local business owners that don't approve of gays will still have to deal with them too," Mike pointed out, speaking up for the first time.

"They may have to serve them, but there's nothing that says they have to give them good or great service," David stated as he gave a cheeky grin. "The business owners shouldn't try to do anything as obvious as having their employees spit in their food or sell them inferior or damaged products, but the service could be slow, frequented by mistakes or possibly other types of problems might occur that would make the gays unhappy. And the attitude of those forced to deal with those types of people could simply be very cold and brusque, without being offensive or hostile. I would think that should be sufficient to motivate them to go somewhere else for what they want."

"Ok, I suppose that might work, at least as a temporary fix," Charles finally agreed as he relented to the arguments, "but won't we still need to find a more permanent solution to the problem."

"And we do that by getting people voted into office that see things the same way we do and by running campaigns that sway others to embrace our point of view," David offered in response, as he slammed his fist on the table for added emphasis. "That has to be our primary long range goal, because it's also our best hope of overturning this terrible ruling. Until then, we'll just have to do what we can."

That was how the process to sabotage the gays' hard-fought victory first began. Could this plan possibly succeed? Only if those affected by these attacks do nothing to prevent the other side from being successful. All in favor of the ruling will need to do everything in their power and work as hard as they can to frustrate their opponents' efforts to reverse this decision. If not, these same opponents will be successful in crushing their dreams yet again.

The End.