HARRISBURG - If anyone embodies the anger and intellect of those who oppose passage of Senate Bill 1250, the one that would essentially define marriage in Pennsylvania’s Constitution as only a heterosexual relationship, it’s retiring state Sen. Vincent Fumo, a Philadelphia Democrat. The best show at the Capitol today was inside the Senate Appropriations Hearing on the matter, in which a line of amendment supporters approached the dais, gave their testimony, and then Fumo brought the cannonfire. While the amendment will probably pass overwhelmingly in the state Senate (and then likely disappear in a House committee chaired by a Democrat), Fumo’s not backing away from an opportunity to paint amendment supporters as hypocritical, prejudicial and mean-spirited.
Fumo’s a Democrat from an area of Pennsylvania with a strong homosexual community, a place where even the city promotes gay and lesbian tourism specifically. But he seemed to be alone among the Appropriations Committee to sting amendment supporters with pointed questions and criticisms, many of which drew jeers and boos from the gathered audience of about 120 people.
One testy exchange came with Bishop Giblert Coleman of Freedom Christian Bible Fellowship, an African-American constituent of Fumo’s. Coleman essentially said America had lost its moral compass since the separation of church and state was implemented - which would make it, oh, right about the time we were founded in the late 1700s - and he went on to say gay marriage essentially would erode a “foundational pillar” of this country.
“This nation finds no problem in abandoning its beliefs and morals to conform to the wants and desires of a few people that believe we should throw away the foundation and opt for a new one,” Coleman said. “America was established on Biblical principles that anchored and governed this nation until government decided that the Bible and its teachings are unconstitutional; thus we began a downward spiral … .”
After Coleman finished, Fumo pounced, and it was something like Ali and Frazier.
“Look at those people, sir,” Fumo said, pointing to several people from the Rainbow Rose Coalition, a Lancaster-based group opposing the amendment, sitting in the front row, “and say you want to discriminate against them. They’re just as human as you are.
“You want your civil rights as a minority,” Fumo went on to say. “They want their rights as a gay minority.”
“These are not civil rights,” Coleman said about marriage. “These are moral rights.”
As Coleman departed, he said in a barely audible voice “Go read your Bible” to Fumo, which prompted the Democrat to say: “I’ll go read the Constitution.”
