For an organization created to supposedly "defend marriage," the National Organization for Marriage seems to be going into hyper drive in an effort put the disappearing dust on same-sex families.
Check out three recent posts on its blog:
UK Survey Aims to Make Pre-School Classes "Gay Friendly"
French Primary School Kids to Get Lessons in Gay Parenting
Ontario Judge: Parents Have No Right to Know What Gay Activist Taught Their Children
The claims made by these headlines and the articles they are talking about are highly specious, coming from what appears to religious right sources. For example, take the one about UK survey attempting to make pre-school classes "gay friendly." NOM links the story from The UK Christian Institute and it is as follows:
Please note that the article claims that parents were being asked about their sex lives but in reality, they were asked about their sexual orientation. Two other publications verify that the question asked was merely about sexual orientation, not sexual activity. Unfortunately however, both publications also featured hysterical and inaccurate headlines about sexual activity.
What's happening here is subtle but nonetheless dangerous. NOM is conflating any questions designed to help same-sex families to that of scurrilous questions about sexual activity.
Granted, I can understand a tad the trepidation some may feel about being asked about their sexual orientation. But to automatically assume that these questions are a gateway to being asked about sexual activity is an extreme stretch.
Check out three recent posts on its blog:
UK Survey Aims to Make Pre-School Classes "Gay Friendly"
French Primary School Kids to Get Lessons in Gay Parenting
Ontario Judge: Parents Have No Right to Know What Gay Activist Taught Their Children
The claims made by these headlines and the articles they are talking about are highly specious, coming from what appears to religious right sources. For example, take the one about UK survey attempting to make pre-school classes "gay friendly." NOM links the story from The UK Christian Institute and it is as follows:
Parents in the East End of Glasgow were shocked to be asked about their sex lives, so that their pre-school children would get “gay-friendly” lessons. Mums and Dads were offered free theatre tickets in exchange for answering a survey about their sexual orientation. The study was carried out by a local arts group which is part-run by the city council. The aim of the Platform charity’s questionnaire, was to help “monitor the degree to which our programmes are gay-friendly”.
Please note that the article claims that parents were being asked about their sex lives but in reality, they were asked about their sexual orientation. Two other publications verify that the question asked was merely about sexual orientation, not sexual activity. Unfortunately however, both publications also featured hysterical and inaccurate headlines about sexual activity.
What's happening here is subtle but nonetheless dangerous. NOM is conflating any questions designed to help same-sex families to that of scurrilous questions about sexual activity.
Granted, I can understand a tad the trepidation some may feel about being asked about their sexual orientation. But to automatically assume that these questions are a gateway to being asked about sexual activity is an extreme stretch.
Regarding the Canadian story, this NOM blog entry has been reposted all over the Christian right media. However, a few items. 1) The IPC is NOT a judicial body (so not a judge), 2) Laura Wolfson is a former president of Temple Shalom, and 3) I can find NO record of such an order on the IPC web site! This is, no surprise, all just rumour on the part of NOM.
ReplyDeleteEgg's on NOM, a majority of the commenters aren't buying NOM's trash. They're especially aware that the blog posts don't have anything to do with marriage.
ReplyDelete"But to automatically assume that these questions are a gateway to being asked about sexual activity is an extreme stretch."
ReplyDeleteThe Religious Right think that being asked about sexual orientation IS being asked about sexual activity. For the RR, being LGBT, and increasingly, being straight and cisgendered, is ALL about sex.