BY JAMES NIMMO

If the obvious is obvious, then why skirt around the obvious word? Isn’t it obvious gays and lesbians are the obvious targets?

Let me explain.

GOPer state Rep. Jason Nelson gets a bit squirrelly in his use of the word “shell” in reference to his bill to arrest clergy who perform religious ceremonies he doesn’t like. He’s obviously not all embarrassed that his plan has been discovered, yet if a shell bill is merely a formality, as he says, why does he select clergy performing ceremonies in the context of their constitutionally protected religious practices? And why does he single out marriage? Why didn’t he choose baptism, or divorce, or circumcision?

Here’s an OU Daily story about Nelson’s attempt to obliterate the obvious:

http://www.oudaily.com/news/2010/feb/03/marriage-bill-faces-scrutiny/

or http://tinyurl.com/ye7lycp

And here’s another POV of Nelson’s obvious gay-hating bill from beyond Okie-land borders. See! I’m not infected with the Tenther-Birther-Tea-Bag virus. Other people can recognize the obvious need for some legislators to keep beating a dead horse even if some of the Okie natives can’t.

http://www.queerty.com/why-is-ok-rep-jason-nelson-changing-just-1-word-of-a-law-banning-priests-from-officiating-gay-marriages-20100127/ or http://tinyurl.com/ydbm8wq

It’s obvious Rep. Nelson, R-OKC, isn’t satisfied that in Oklahoma there’s an immoral and illegal constitutional amendment imposed by the voters in 2004 preventing recognition of same-gender marriages by the state.

No county clerk will issue a valid license, therefore there is no marriage, period!

And then there’s the federal law known as DOMA [Defense of Marriage Act] which allows states to ignore, if they wish, same-gender marriages performed in other states. And if that weren’t enough there’s DOMA that prohibits federal benefits granted to hetero-couples from being granted to homo-couples.

Having done everything obviously to sequester gay and lesbian couples in the public forum, Nelson now wants to go after clergy performing ceremonies which have no recognition outside the walls of their sanctuaries.

This obvious desire runs smack against the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of, and freedom from, religion.

Nelson’s motives are obviously rooted in a word known as “over-kill” – a word I use in trepidation when talking about obvious homo-haters.

R.I.P. Matthew Shepard.

– James Nimmo lives in Oklahoma City and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer