Kelly Boggs commits the sin of omission

In a column today at Town Hall, Kelly Boggs makes the tired argument of lgbts "pushing our agenda" at the expense of American values.

To do so, he recounts an incident that I have talked about on more than one occasion:

The Court of Appeals for the U.S. Ninth Circuit upheld this summer an Oakland, Calif., city government declaration that the phrase "marriage is the foundation of the natural family and sustains family values" was inflammatory and promoted harassment based on so-called sexual orientation. The phrase was also deemed to be homophobic and disruptive.

It seems a few Christian women working for Oakland's city government formed a Good News Employee Association, and in promoting the club, included the aforementioned phrase on a flier. Later, a lesbian worker complained that the flier made her feel "targeted" and "excluded."

Boggs does not give further details about the incident; thus making it seem that the Christian employees were unfairly treated.

This is a lie.

Boggs failed to mention other facts in this particular case. The following is from a July 26, 2007 post on my blog:

I have talked the situation involving a lawsuit some Christian employees had with the city of Oakland many times on this blog.These employees, the Allied Defense Fund, and other members of the anti-gay industry have claimed that they were discriminated against simply because they wanted to start a Christian organization in response to other employees starting a gay tolerance group.

The employees and the Allied Defense Fund sued while the rest of the anti-gay industry distorted the case as "another" example of the supposed gay agenda trying to shut down Christians.The situation had nothing to do with them being able to form their group, but with a flyer the organizers put up. The flyer used language in a manner that bashed gay employees. The city told the organizers that they could submit another flyer but the two women in the middle of the situation refused.The Ninth Circuit Court ruled against them so they have been appealing to the Supreme Court.

I ran across something else that sheds light on the story and I want to share with everyone. The following is from an article printed on July 4:

. . . the seemingly harmless flier was not an isolated incident but part of a deliberate pattern of harassment. The association's flier was specifically posted outside of a lesbian co-worker's cubicle, placed on her desk and in the restroom. The plaintiffs went out of their way to harass their lesbian co-worker as well as to proselytize about their belief on city time and on the taxpayer's dime.

Boggs committed what I like to call a popular anti-gay industry tactic: the sin of omission. He clearly did not tell the entire story regarding the Oakland lawsuit because he wanted to push forth the image of an "aggressive" gay agenda.

The fact of the matter is that the employee who complained was in fact targeted by those employees. It was their actions that caused the problem, not their Christian beliefs. And certainly not the employee whom they targeted.