Lesbian Cheerleader

I don’t know how many of you have seen this frightening video from the National Organisation of Marriage:

I won’t pull apart the ad since endthelies.org has already done that, but there’s something else interesting that I noticed after I made a complaint to NOM about the video. I inadvertently signed myself up to their mailing list while complaining and I received an e-mail from Maggie Gallagher asking me to watch a clip of her appearance on Hardball. Let’s watch the video:

Other than the fact that this video is really an embarrassment to Maggie (she surely gets slated by Joe and is obviously so scared of loosing her footing that she is left with no choice but to blatantly interrupt him – nice discussion tactics there Maggie!) I thought that I’d point out the less than obvious contradiction that Maggie makes here.

Maggie tries to make the point that she is OK with same sex couples, and that she wishes “Ray and Tommy all the best”. She then says that “A lot of things are going to change for our children and grandchildren” but fails to state exactly what will change and what the effect of this will be. Going back to the advert, let’s take the quote “I’m a Massachusetts parent, watching helplessly while public schools teach my child that gay marriage is okay.”

So what are the effects of teaching children that same-sex marriage is OK? So far I have heard not a single negative effect of teaching this to children. The advert is simply fear mongering. It does a good job of making the association in the mind of Children and negativity without actually saying what these negative effects are.

Let’s look at the positive. By teaching children not to discriminate, we might get a step or two closer to stopping tragedies such as the death of Eric Mohat, the boy who committed suicide after a torrent of homophobic bullying. Currently, by teaching kids that same sex couples are different from opposite sex couples and do not deserve the same civil rights, we are sending them the message that hey, it’s OK to discriminate against these people, it’s OK to push them aside and bully them.

Eric was involved in theater and music, was called "gay," "fag," "queer" and "homo" and often in front of his teachers.

So Maggie, do you wish “All the best” to a future generation of homosexual children, or will you continue to tell them they are inadequate and unequal, at the risk of further teen suicides?