Via The Moderate Voice, I laughed myself silly at this ad this morning:
Ohfergoodness’ sake. Melodramatic much? My eyebrows shot right up through my hairline at what I thought they were saying.
What I heard: “They” are going to make me / my children gay, and/or take away the rights of families / parents to educate their children.
Bizarre! Ridiculous! Insane!
So much so, in fact, that I had to go check my assumptions at their website, and read the background on their issues. The most clarifying thing I found there was a link to a Washington Post article from a couple of weeks ago, detailing various court cases lost by people attempting to do business in accordance with their personal religious convictions.
There are a number of parodies out already of the gathering storm ad, and they’re funny (very!), but they’re skipping right past a very real conflict between equally fundamental (imho) rights.
The WaPo article contains quite a few examples, not all of which are problematic. For instance: I think it’s ridiculous to suggest (as this group does) that if public schools teach tolerance of homosexuality, parents have no input. Families absolutely have the right to instruct their children in their own religious values, and teaching bigotry is a time-honored tradition in our country.
Some of the court decisions, though, struck me as very troublesome. A church group cannot limit the use of its pavilion to hetero couples’ ceremonies? A psychologist who objects to gay marriage is required to counsel a lesbian couple? Seriously?
We’re going to just toss the First Amendment overboard?
Although my personal preference would be to move the “marriage” portion of civil unions into the churches for all couples, I’m a strong supporter of gay rights. From a constitutional perspective, however, there may be a cataclysmic clash coming between various guaranteed rights — specifically, the First and the Fourteenth.
Yes, these folks made a truly parody-begging ad, but I don’t think kicking their concerns under the bus serves a good purpose.