Powerless And Impotent Rush Limbaugh Attacks Star Trek Legend And Icon George Takei

So George Takei, one of gay rights' wittiest defenders, and just a very funny, engaging fellow, has drawn the ire of the intoxicated-with-himself Rush Limbaugh ...

So we have Obamacare, and now, right on its heels, we have Marriage Equality. That means we all have a right to healthcare, and we all have a right to marriage. More rights. Nothing taken away from anybody.

It’s a win-win, right?

While we engage in the #nakiehappypagandanceoflove, or however it is you celebrate, conservatives are absolutely losing it over all the things they haven’t lost.

Literally, they have lost nothing. Other people have gained stuff, but they’ve lost nothing. Let’s make that perfectly clear: they did not lose their right to healthcare, and they did not lose the right to get married to the person they love.

But other people did get what they have. And, being conservatives, that drives them nuts.

So George Takei, one of gay rights’ wittiest defenders, and just a very funny, engaging fellow, has drawn the ire of the intoxicated-with-himself Rush Limbaugh, because Takei isn’t forced to abide by Rush’s bigoted beliefs.

Limbaugh whines, “Nobody in the heterosexual world is forcing anything on anybody … but Mr. Takei and his group can impose their beliefs on you all day every day.”

And what are they imposing on you, Rush? Are they forcing you to marry a man? Or, at least, the same of whatever it is you are?

George Takei…was on CNN this morning, the bespectacled Ashleigh Banfield said “there is still so much left to be said regarding the actual process…

It’s never over. It’s never a win. There is never happiness on the left. It’s fleeting and temporary, and it is the case with gay marriage, because Ms. Banfield said, “While the Supreme Court has had its say, there’s still a lot of messy work that needs to be done in at least 20 of those states that still recognize those bans.” There is? I thought this meant that we were all aligned, we were all together, and there was love just breaking out all over the country. I thought all that was at stake here was some people who were denied marriage because of their sexual orientation, just wanted to be accepted.

They just wanted to be included.

They want their dignity to be recognized.

But it’s about much more than that, as you and I well know. It’s not about being accepted. It’s about forcing. It’s about redefining. The use of force is involved here — intimidation, bullying, what have you — and George Takei signals there’s more to come. The rest of her question is this: “Those states, George, they still need to be challenged. So is the work of gay activist over or do you still see this as a challenge to the finish line?”

TAKEI: Indeed we see it as a challenge. It’s going to be a — a new challenge. But we are very mindful of that challenge that still remains. They are now — some of these, um, states, are — going to try to use the, uh, ‘shroud’ of religious freedom. I believe in religious freedom, and people who argue that are entitled to their freedom. But they do not have the freedom to impose their religious values on to others. I’ve heard some of the people, uh, expressing their comments on the, uh, Supreme Court ruling, and they’re entitled to that. But they are not entitled to impose their will on everybody.

You see, this is what’s wrong with this. Nobody in the… I can’t believe I’m saying this. Nobody in the heterosexual world is forcing anything on anybody. They’re minding their own business and having something forced on them, is what’s happening here. So Mr. Takei says: Hey, you’re free to have your religious beliefs. Have them all you like. I have mine, too. But you can’t impose your religious values on to others.

Of course, “heterosexuals” (a deplorable and outdated term. Let’s just say “christofascists”) do force their delusions on others. For centuries, they have dictated to the Western world what religion is, and what marriage is.

In Michigan, they want to ban all but religious marriages. If you can’t get priestly okay, you can’t get married. I call that an imposition.

Nobody – Takei included – is imposing beliefs on others. On the other hand, as Takei has written, “LGBT couples have until recently often been told by largely straight leaders elected by largely straight voters that our relationships are less valuable and not worthy of public acceptance and legal recognition.”

Rush is upset about cakes and bakers, but he doesn’t get that refusing to bake cakes for gay couples is no different than refusing to bake cakes for blacks, or mixed “race” couples. The same arguments were once used against mixed “race” marriages as are now being used against gay couples.

But Rush does want to impose his beliefs on gay couples. And it is people like Rush who make the argument for George Takei and other activists, that the struggle for gays (as for blacks and women and everyone else he despises) is far from over.