In this wonderful video, writer, reporter, and video producer Matt Baume takes down all of the distortions contained in a new Family Research Council video speaking against marriage equality. It should be required viewing and demonstrates just what is the problem with American broadcast media these days - too many lazy pundits hogging up the air and not enough talented folks like Baume (who actually do the digging and the grunt work) getting the attention they deserve:
Hat tip to Joe Jervis.
Full transcript, minus Baum’s self promo ad at the end. (emphasis mine). Part 1:
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Matt Baum: Well, the Family Research Council has a new video that’s all about how the gays are going to ruin everything, and can you believe it’s full of lies and distortions? Let’s take it down.
FRC video: President Reagan said that freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.
Matt Baum: It was actually governor Reagan who said that, but we’ll let that one slide. You’re going to hear these people use the word freedom a lot, but watch out, when they say it, it doesn’t mean what you think it means. By the way, millions of people are going to see this thing, because FRC’s organizing an event called Stand for Marriage Sunday, where they ask churches all over the country to play the video during services. They’re going to have a captive audience and here’s the guy responsible.
FRC video: I’m Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council.
Matt Baum: Just a little back story on Tony, he’s been running FRC since 2003. He called homosexuality morally wrong, he’s opposed to even civil unions and he says that gay kids should be sent away to “pray away the gay” torture camps. He opposed the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and he supported Uganda’s “death to gays” bill. Back in the 90’s he was caught buying a mailing list from the former head of the Ku Klux Klan [David Duke]. 2001 he delivered a friendly speech to a white supremacy group, and under his leadership FRC was designated a hate group, so he’s great.
FRC video: In June the Supreme Court will rule on the issue of same-sex marriage
Matt Baum: Ok, this is going to be a video about the freedom to marry, right?
FRC video: Throughout the country the majority of American continue to believe that marriage should be between on man and one woman.
Matt Baum: This is not even remotely true. Here’s what the polling on marriage equality looks like right now [shows graph]. Support is up around 60% and opposition is down around 30%. The last time a majority of Americans favored excluding LGBT’s from marriage was in 2010, so how can Tony possibly make this claim. Well, first it is based on an actual study, but guess who paid for that study? Tony did, in fact it was conducted by a PR company that advertises on its website that it shows clients how to change opinions and behaviors. So this isn’t a study at all, it’s propaganda.
FRC video: But maybe most importantly is the fact that 81% of Americans believe that the government should leave people free to follow their beliefs.
Matt Baum: Yeah, ok, stop. That 81% number is from the same company that did the marriage [approval] “study,” so it might as well be made up. But wait, is this a video about marriage or religion?
Part 2
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FRC video: Wedding photographers, florists, bakers and caterers are increasingly being punished by the government.
Matt Baum: Oh, ok, it’s one of these. He’s going to complain about how businesses that discriminate against certain customers get fined for breaking non-discrimination laws. You can click over here if you need a refresher on why certain businesses aren’t allowed to turn away LGBT customers.
FRC video: All for simply following their Biblical convictions…
Matt Baum: Oh, yup, there it is, the Bible passage about not serving pizza to lesbians. [opens and shuts Bible] The fact is, nobody is punished for having Biblical convictions, you’re free to believe whatever you want, but if you act on a belief that harms someone else, well, there are consequences. There are some laws that everyone has to follow. Faith healers that let their children die from treatable diseases go to jail. Schools that prohibit children from having interracial relationships lose their tax breaks. And the California Church that practiced prostitution, yes, really, had to stop. Having a religious belief isn’t an “I can do whatever I want card.”
FRC video: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
Matt Baum: Oh, you want to get all free-exercise clause, fine, let’s also talk about its friend, the establishment clause. Yeah, the constitution protects the free exercise of religion, but in the same sentence it says that the government can’t turn a religious belief into law. So you’re free to believe whatever you want in private, and then we all have to follow the same basic laws in public.
FRC video: I don’t think the founders could ever conceived a time when someone was told “you can’t practice your trade.” If somehow the government doesn’t like what you think.
Matt Baum: Again, the government does not care what you think, the government cares what you do. You can think adultery is wrong but you can’t stone adulterers.
FRC video: When it comes to something as sacred as a marriage ceremony, that’s different.
Matt Baum: Ok, fine, it’s different. But here’s the thing, if you really believe that marriage discrimination is sacred, you have an option for legally turning away the gays. You can stop serving the public and become a private club. Bam, done, go and discriminate. You still can’t stone people but you can turn away whoever you like. But that’s not what Tony wants, he wants to double-dip with his rights. He want’s the benefits of serving the public without the responsibility of treating everyone equally and you can’t do that. If you want the government to protect your freedom, you have to let it protect everyone else’s.
FRC video: I love gay people, I’ve had gay friends, I don’t hate them it’s not about that.
Matt Baum: I covered this “I have gay friends” thing a few videos ago. Let me sum it up, you don’t have gay friends, you know gay people. You think they’re beneath you and their relationships are inferior to yours. You turn your back on them on the happiest day of their lives. So if you think that’s an ok way to treat your friends, I’m surprised you have any at all.
FRC video: Religious freedom is increasingly taking a backseat to a government mandated politically correct way of thinking.
Part 3 final (Sorry, Alvin, I didn’t realize how lengthy this would be)
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Matt Baum: Didn’t you just cite the constitution and now you’re complaining about government mandates? You are aware that the Constitution is a part of Government, right? And exactly what mandate is Tony talking about here? That would be the 14th Amendment, which requires that all laws apply equally to everyone. Yes, it’s political correctness gone mad.
FRC video: And it’s time to engage. I encourage you to view “One Generation Away.” We’re making 3 copies of this captivating DVD available for a donation of $20.
Matt Baum: Are you kidding me? This whole thing has been an infomercial. Do the DVDs come with a blender and a tote bag? By the way, the FRC takes in about 14 million dollars a year and last year it paid Tony Perkins about a quarter million. He could buy a lot of DVDs for that. Oh, and guess who else gets a cut, this guy, DVD salesman Rick Santorum. After he dropped out of the presidential race four years ago, he took over a Christian film company, made a movie starring himself and now he’s spreading it around churches across the country, right before he runs for president again. Well played.
So, now we see what this is, it’s an ad, which explains why it’s full of misrepresentations, distortions and outright lies. And it ends with a little more Reagan.
FRC video: And you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America, when men were brave.
Matt Baum: Yep, he gave that speech in 1961. He was actually referring to Medicare, which he called “socialism by way of medicine.” Well, guess what, it turns out that providing medical care to the elderly did not result in the downfall of democracy, just like how non-discrimination laws are not going to mean the death of religious freedom.
For Tony Perkins, freedom doesn’t mean freedom for everyone, it just means freedom for him [and his supremacist followers] to do whatever he [and his supremacist followers] wants without having to follow laws he doesn’t like, and also to hawk $20 DVDs to mega churches.
But for freedom to really work, it doesn’t just mean protection from the government, it means that sometimes the government protects us, by granting us freedom from people like Tony Perkins [and the FRC], who would use the law to stop weddings, imprison kids in ex-gay torture camps and shove service members back in the closet. This is the same kind of “freedom” that was used to marginalize people of color and women. In fact, Tony’s video omits another little Reagan sound bite from around the same time; Reagan: “If an individual wants to discriminate against negroes or others in selling or renting his house, it is his right to do so.”
Ah, so that’s what it was like in America when men were free. Sounds great. Good luck with your new project, Tony, your mailing list ought to love it.