Queer Bait

Sager says it's not just fear of political suicide that makes Democrats squishy on this issue. "It's just like when we do the pro-life versus pro-choice votes. The pro-life people come down and terrorize the Capitol for a few days. Pro-choice people don't threaten to kill anybody, but pro-life people threaten to blow people up." Same thing goes on gay issues, Sager says. "Gay people don't shoot people, hang them from trees, burn them alive. But the people who hate gay people do all those things."

Apparently, that sort of atmosphere can make even a macho man like Jay Nixon quiver in his boots. Who knows what Nixon really believes. Maybe he's opposed to gay marriage for personal reasons; if that's the case, he should just say so. As it is, because of his role in arguing for an August vote, he's the party's most visible opinion leader on the topic.

Too bad it's not Sager.

"I was the state rep who stood up on the floor of the House and talked about how my daughter didn't want to ride the school bus anymore because someone called her a lesbian, and I told her she shouldn't let ignorant bigots offend her," Sager tells us, recapping the legislature's debates. Out in the hallway afterward, he says, "a couple of Republican reps called me a fag lover."

Sager figures he's the only state rep from a district that's less than 65 percent Democratic who voted against the amendment.

"I'm the number-one Republican target in 2004," he says. "They've announced it in the hallways and in press releases. But I voted no because it was the right thing to do. I will not help promulgate hatred and bigotry. These people are sitting at home thinking, If we can just get a few more bigots to go to the polls, we can keep the majority."

It's guys like Sager who make the Democratic Party inspiring. It's guys like Nixon who make it seem like there's no use voting.