Maryland online store exploits African-Americans, babies, and slavery to promote homophobia

Remember the tactics of those who defeated the marriage equality bill in Maine in 2009? In case you forget, remember this snippet of the documentary Question 1. It features Marc Mutty, the head of the campaign to stop marriage equality in Maine talking about how the dishonest fear tactics regarding children that his side used:

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 I bring up this point because there is now a fight regarding a law allowing marriage equality in Maryland. It's up for referendum in November and the folks fighting it are using the same tactics, but with a twist with attention to the Maryland's African-American population:

 According to Jeremy Hooper, this lovely snippet comes from an online store, Jump the Broom for Marriage, which sells all of the anti-marriage equality in Maryland apparel one would need.

Jeremy posted two examples on his blog but I refused to post them on mine. Ugly mess.

One could easily guess that the postcard above is a combination of the National Organization for Marriage's two plans of driving a wedge between the gay and African-American community on the subject of marriage equality and exploiting fear about children and gays espoused by the organization's strategist Frank Schubert (spoiler alert - who has a sister raising a child in a same-sex household).

And it gets worse. In using the name "Jump the Broom," this site also exploits African-American tradition. In the days of slavery, African-Americans could not legally marry so they would have a ceremony in which the couple would signify their commitment to each other.

How much do you want to bet that NOM is behind this online store?

'Chick-Fil-A retreating from anti-gay position, 'girly-men' in the White House?' and other Wednesday midday news briefs

PRESS RELEASE - Chick-fil-A Ceases Anti-gay Donations, Clarifies Stance on Gay Customers & Employees - When this was first pointed out to me, I said that I don't believe it. But looks legit (FOR NOW), plus NOM seems to be backtracking a bit from its support of Chick-Fil-A.  

GOP Congressional Candidate Says Mideast Turmoil Is Because Of ‘Girly Men’ In The White House - Excuse the %^$!@#! out of me!

What Do Student Attendees Have To Say About NOM’s Anti-Gay Summer Conference? - Interesting fallout from Carlos Maza's expose on NOM's anti-gay conference.

 Washington DC 'Transgender And Gender Identity Respect' Campaign Launched - Awesome and groundbreaking!

George Will doesn't know the difference between gay sex and a gay relationship

George Will

George Will, the esteemed Pulitzer Prize winning conservative columnist, has been lauded for his prose on several subjects.

However, in the case of gay equality, he is woefully ignorant.

In a recent piece, he recounts the story of the New Mexico photographer who refused to take pictures of a same-sex wedding. Vanessa Willock successfully sued Elane Photography for refusing to photograph her same-sex wedding.

Now this case has caused a lot of controversy with even some gay advocates thinking that Elane Photography should be allowed to refuse customers.

Naturally, Will is in the corner of Elane Photography and that doesn't bother me. It is this portion near the end of his piece which disturbed me:

The Huguenin case demonstrates how advocates of tolerance become tyrannical. First, a disputed behavior, such as sexual activities between people of the same sex, is declared so personal and intimate that government should have no jurisdiction over it. Then, having won recognition of what Louis Brandeis, a pioneer of the privacy right, called “the right to be let alone,” some who have benefited from this achievement assert a right not to let other people alone. It is the right to coerce anyone who disapproves of the now-protected behavior into acting as though they approve of it, or at least into not acting on their disapproval. So, in the name of tolerance, government declares intolerable individuals such as the Huguenins, who disapprove of a certain behavior but ask only to be let alone in their quiet disapproval. Perhaps advocates of gay rights should begin to restrain the bullies in their ranks. 

So to Will, this case is about Willock "forcing" Elane Photography to recognize her "sexual behavior." It's a conclusion which left me scratching my head and wondering just when did we start talking about sexual intercourse rather than taking pictures of a wedding? As far as I am concerned, that's a huge problem.

 And it's not the only problem. Will epitomizes two concept that so many folks have when it comes to gay equality - concepts that drive me batty:

1. Gays are like whimpering dogs begging heterosexuals to tolerate us or leave us alone. People like Will batter the gay community with that "tolerance" semantic constantly. "You people are always talking about tolerance," they say, "but you can't tolerate that others don't like your lifestyle."  Tolerance is something you give to your dog after he accidentally urinates on the rug because he is your pet and therefore is dependent on you.

Too many folks think of gays as pets, i.e. that our lives are dependent on getting them to accept us. Not necessarily. Our lives are consumed with ordinary things - working, paying taxes, taking care of our families. We just don't want people like Will interrupting our normal flow based upon their ignorance. Nor do we want them to interpret the law in a way which would diminish our rights as Americans.

2. Which brings me to my second point.Why do people like Will conflate so many parts of our lives to a sex act. Willock wanted pictures taken of her wedding, not intercourse with her partner. Will's belief that this is all about "sexual activities" is the heart of so much ignorance about our lives.

Will is a married man so I know that he wouldn't appreciate someone diminishing the relationship between he and his wife to what they may or may not do in the bedroom. But yet, he sees no problem with doing that to gay couples.

I think at the heart this controversy is the fact that the lives of lgbtqs are about more than sex acts. We are talking about relationships and love, the raising of families, and the caring of our loved ones.

The irony is that while folks like Will claim that we can't move past the physical aspects of being gay, it is obvious that they neither can or want to.