Some of the statements are revolting in their bigotry and sheer ignorance
BBSNews Roundup - 2008-05-16 -- The California Supreme Court affirmed the equal rights to marriage for gays yesterday in a landmark ruling for the state that has already enraged social "conservatives".
The folks who love to focus on hatred of gays were swift and vehement in their emotional knee-jerk reactions and we've gathered five of the most glaring examples of the hatred and bigotry that still exists in America to "those" that are not like "us".
For our first example, consider the statement from a group that calls themselves the "Campaign for Children and Families" - a group that proclaims to reach "children and families" and yet does not hesitate on marginalizing those families it does not deem worthy. A guy named Randy Thomasson leads this outfit, he makes the outlandish claim that this ruling came about because of the "rebel" city of San Francisco and that the decision was meant to "destroy all that is good and sacred". Yechhh. He had this to say in response to the ruling:
"On a 4-3 vote, the California Supreme Court has destroyed the civil institution of marriage between a man and a woman, and law-abiding Americans must condemn it in the strongest terms. This arrogant judicial activism took 121 pages of contorted logic to explain and is no surprise coming from this San Francisco-based court. By bowing down to homosexual activists and the rebel city of San Francisco, the California Supreme Court has exchanged the rule of law for the rule of unbridled power to destroy all that is good and sacred. However, the terrible example of homosexual 'weddings' should be short-lived. This extremely bad ruling will certainly spur Californians to vote in November to overrule the judges and protect marriage licenses for a man and a woman in the California Constitution. In the meantime, Governor Schwarzenegger should resist any temptation to sign any bill opposing the people's vote on marriage. This terrible opinion authored by Chief Justice Ron George makes him the chief target of California voters who know that marriage is only for a man and woman. George is up for reelection in 2010."
Another "values" group called unimaginatively the "Traditional Values Coalition" run by Andrea Lafferty and Rev. Louis P. Sheldon waded into the fray with a release from their Web site opining "This decision is also fundamentally wrong because homosexuality has never been declared by the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, or the National Academy of Sciences as being completely genetic, nor does it fulfill the other requirements for minority-status classification. Therefore, it is still a behavior-based lifestyle choice that should not be given the equivalent of insular and discreet minority status."
You see, the "traditional values" folks want you to believe they have a scientific basis for their hatred of all things gay by simply claiming people can simply pick and choose when they want to be gay or not.
And along comes the perennial hater of all things progressive and forward looking: "Focus on the Family". It's a little hard to tell who and what their press release really came from on the issue because the Focus' empire seems to have had a Web master breakdown on the press release template. The "by Author goes here" at the top of the release and the "Author bio goes here." at the bottom shows that even the mighty have pedestrian problems in keeping up appearances.
FoF's big guy, that lovable lug James Dobson, that scion of all things good and pure, set his laser like focus on the proposed, maybe, if it's declared to have enough signatures to go forward, constitutional amendment in California to enshrine bigotry into that decidedly left-leaning state in November:
"In 1863, Abraham Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address that ours is a government ‘of the people, by the people and for the people.’ Well, not in the state of California, where four imperious and unelected justices have just overridden the will of the voters. In 2000, Proposition 22 defined marriage as being exclusively between one man and one woman; the initiative passed by an overwhelming margin of 61 to 39 percent. That emphatic expression of the will of the people has now arrogantly been declared null and void."In so doing, the justices have undermined and endangered the basic building block of society, which has been honored and preserved in every nation on earth through most of human history. What an outrage. It will be up to the people of California to preserve traditional marriage by passing a constitutional amendment in the November elections. Only then can they protect themselves from this latest example of judicial tyranny."
Imagine the chutzpah to invoke Lincoln's name when advocating an elevation of bigotry to the state constitutional level.
The "Alliance Defense Fund" used the ruling to appeal for money in conjunction with this advocacy groups' push of the proposed amendment to the California constitution denying an entire class of real, living and breathing people equal rights and treatment under the laws of that state. In a shameless and crass attempt at picking up some cash, this group claimed:
"We must work quickly to reverse the effects of this loss. As a result of the court's ruling, same-sex couples from other states may soon come to get "married" in California and then return to their home state and demand that the "marriage" be recognized. In short, it may provide an opportunity for advocates to try to force same-sex "marriage" not just on California, but on the entire country ... Your generous gift today enables ADF to stand against any legal challenges to this proposed amendment's inclusion on the ballot, allowing your voice to be heard on marriage in November."
Imagine, people demanding their natural rights in a free society, what could those darn gays be thinking?
We close with a group entitled "National Organization for Marriage California" and their sole reason for being is to get bigotry against a class of people inserted into California's constitution; they are the self-proclaimed driving force of this effort. In a cruel twist on the meaning of English language, they couch their appeal to people who may not make the connection that one or two out of every ten people they meet just might be the dreaded gay person they have been taught to fear and hate.
This vocally active social misfit of an organization is run by Brian Brown. This man turns the very meaning of bigotry on its head by proclaiming in his reaction to the ruling:
"'A state marriage amendment is the only way to put Prop 22 safely from the reach of activist judges who cannot tell the difference between marriage and bigotry,' said Brown, 'We call on gay marriage advocates to halt the divisive and intolerant rhetoric which cruelly and falsely labels millions of Californians as 'hate mongers' because we support marriage as the union of husband and wife."
Ahem. Mr. Brown could do well to note that "millions" of Californians are not labeled as bigots because they support marriage. They are called bigots, hate mongers and various other unflattering but deserved epithets because they seek to deny a class of people equal rights and treatment under the law and actually ensconce their bigotry in states' and the federal constitution and make this exclusion of a class people the law of the land.
Eh, just as the bans against interracial marriage were struck down not all that long ago in American history, so too will these groups just have to face the fact that gay marriage has absolutely no effect on them, or society at large, at all.
It's simply none of their damned business.
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