Op-Ed Of The Day

John Hammontree writes for AL.com:

Of the 36 states that currently allow gay marriage, only 11 states do so as a result of legislation or popular vote. The vast majority of states have achieved marriage equality through judicial fiat. So the idea that Alabama is the 36th state, or the 14th state or the 50th state to achieve marriage equality is an arbitrary metric, determined by a court docket, not the expansive hearts of the rest of the country's voters. Alabamians need to stop behaving like we have a monopoly on hatred. When we let the country focus on our intolerance, we let fourteen other states that still deny same-sex marriages off the hook. That gives the fourteen states that are currently considering bills that would exempt individuals from performing marriages for same-sex couples if they have religious objections to it a free pass.

Because every Alabama ex-pat that says "this is why I could never move back to Alabama," reinforces the external viewpoint that retrograde thinking is an inherently Southern trait, which prevents us from having a national conversation about gender equality the same way that it has prevented us from having a national conversation about race. Alabama has already become synonymous with racism in our nation's textbooks and in click bait media culture. If you mention racial turmoil to anyone in America, they'll immediately think of police dogs and fire hoses in Birmingham. [snip] Alabama doesn't own hatred. We just happen to excel at branding it.

The column is titled California Voters Should Thank God For Roy Moore. Read the full thing.

CORRECTION: I've corrected the attribution of the op-ed.