'Ex-gay' group now appropriating the language of gay equality

You are going to love this.

Apparently according to One News Now, July is "ex-gay pride month." To commemorate the occasion, a group calling itself Voice of the Voiceless is going to Washington on July 31 simply to be seen. Supposedly they will be lobbying Congress and then have a dinner with the Family Research Council where the speakers will be Michele Bachman, Jim DeMint and Congressman Tim Huelskamp, who just introduced the latest attempt of a constitutional amendment to ban marriage equality.

All in all, it should be interesting, but what caught my eye was the statement by VOV's president Christopher Doyle:

We are tired of the gay activist lobby discriminating [against] us, marginalizing us and taking away our rights, and we're now fighting back, and we're demanding that if gays are going to get full diversity and equality in America, we also demand that ex-gay voices be heard as well.

Talk about your bizarre language appropriation. This VOV thing is nothing more than fake group whose aim is to cause trouble for those of us who have no problem with our God-given lgbt orientation.

But I wonder how many of them will be in attendance on July 31.

'Anti-marriage equality opponents throw hissyfits, get embarrassed' and other Monday midday news briefs

National Organization For Marriage President Brian Brown: DOMA Decision 'Absolute Travesty' - Awwww! Poor Brian continues to have a hissyfit. 

Rachel Maddow And David Gregory Destroy The GOP’s Last Argument Against Marriage Equality - Meanwhile, Rachel Maddow is her usual brilliant self and apparently David Gregory ate his Wheaties. 

Supreme Court Rejects Petition To Halt Gay Marriages In California - Haters will hate and get embarrassed. 

Anti-Gay Protesters Attack Pride March In Russia - But let's not get too celebratory. Lgbt equality is still a worldwide fight.

Federal Government Begins Extending Employee Benefits To Same-Sex Spouses - Just in case you didn't know . . .

Fear of 'bigot label' a cynical dodge of marriage equality opponents

Almost from the very day we began the argument over marriage equality, opponents have been fretting about how they would be perceived. They have expressed in supposedly sad tones that they merely believe that marriage is between a man and a woman and it was unfair that their "simple and innocent" belief would have them labeled as bigots.

I think Justice Kennedy last week expressed the problematic deception behind this false worry with his words about DOMA. He said DOMA demeaned children in same-sex families by sending them a message that their families are somehow inferior.

In expressing that, Kennedy did not call anyone a bigot. However, to hear the opponents of marriage equality rant and rave, that's exactly what he did. They refuse to notice that by not calling them out specifically, Kennedy was actually agreeing with their notion that their beliefs regarding marriage equality don't make necessarily make them bigots. But he did attack the idea behind opposing marriage equality and you can attack an idea without attacking those who prescribe to that idea.

Now that is the standard view of Justice Kennedy's opinion versus the opponents of marriage equality fretting about being unfairly called bigots.

But it's not my view.

I don't worry about the so-called bigotry of marriage equality opponents because I am bothered by their deliberate evasiveness. Let's be honest. Their whine about being unfairly cast as bigots is a cynical dodge. It's a game many of them play to distract us from a real issue of marriage equality.

And that issue is the one Justice Kennedy so eloquently put. What about the children raised by gay couples?   Why should these children feel that their families are somehow inferior simply due to someone else's personal beliefs?  Why should they be denied rights and self-esteem simply because someone like Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council or Brian Brown from the National Organization for Marriage will not address their very existence while at the same time wax insincerely about being labeled as bigots. Or attempt to blur over the point with meaningless statements about "decades of social science research" supporting their point of view but not naming at least one study which would accurately back them up.

Just as they feel that they have a right to boggart the definition of  "marriage,"  marriage equality opponents feel that they have an equal right to boggart the argument over marriage equality itself until it's less about same-sex families and more about them. As long as they focus all of the attention on themselves, they don't have to address how their point of view actually harms same-sex couples and their children.

And sadly, I think that those leading the charge against marriage equality know this. Their careful avoidance of same-sex couples and especially their children is deliberate.

A little tip, guys. All of the talk about "morality" and "values" don't mean a thing if you employ dishonest methods designed to ignore the rights, needs, or the very existence of your fellow Americans.

Especially when those fellow Americans are children.