What's wrong with the Midwest?

Some scary stuff is happening in the Midwest Statehouses. Oh, you've heard about the union bashing in Wisconsin, and the financial martial law in Michigan that allows the state government to take over cities and you may think it's just Tea Party Fiscal Libertarianism run amok. But the Tea Party is just an extreme example of the Christian Right, and they are assaulting LGBT rights as well.

• In Michigan, there is a Constitutional Amendment forbidding equality. Still, to remain competitive, Michigan's universities and civil service have offered domestic partner benefits to their employees. This has drawn the ire of the Republicans. They were unable to overturn this policy so now they have offered a law to penalize colleges and universities who dare to have such benefits.
• In Wisconsin, union-busting Gov Scott Walker is not satisfied with his attempts to hand the state over to his cronies and the Koch Brothers. Now, he wants to make sure that LGBT people can't visit their partners in the hospital, or have any of the other paltry rights of a very minimal domestic partnership registry. AmericanBlog reminds us that even the Federal Government has established policies to ensure hospital visitation. But not, apparently, in Wisconsin
• In MInnesota, the Republican-dominated Senate has passed a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban same sex marriages; the House seems likely to follow. The only good news is that the Minnesota public opposes such an amendment

I thought it was about the economy and jobs? Nope, the Tea Baggers and the Republicans would rather bash the gays to rile up the base. SO much easier than coming up with a coherent economic policy.