Cross-posty:Also at Marry in Massachusetts.
No one on the anti-SSM side can even begin to explain how expanding marriage (redefining it as they would have it) harms their marriages in the slightest. Court after court at local, state and federal levels agree that there's no damage to sue for there. Protect marriage is a throwaway, just a rallying cry.
The first slogan goes to the heart of the specious ad campaign. The protection they seek is really from the larger world, with the legality of SSM being just a tiny snippet of reality.
Let's get down to it here. These parental rights types want to abrogate their primary responsibility to their kids, to give them a framework for the world outside their homes.
Having attended trials on these suits and read briefs and other related documents, I kept running across the punchline. These couples and a small group of similar ones say that they have the right to be the primary moral instructors of their kids. Indeed they do and it is a duty as well as a right.
They then fail in two ways:
- By claiming that even mentioning the legality of SSM or the existence of homosexual-couple led families, the schools have usurped that parental right.
- By not taking reality in stride at the light level the schools mention it, they have tried to avoid teaching their kids, being the moral instructors.
In my life, I have been instructed by my family both by example and by word. I also got moral views from church, Boy Scouts, my team coaches and others. Not a single one of them said, “I'm the only source of information or opinion you need or should have.”
Instead, the assumption was that I had the wit and heart to digest what I saw, what I experienced, what I read and what I heard. In contrast, the Lexington couples have an extremely unrealistic expectation that they can put their kids in idea bubbles.
Moreover, they choose to avoid their role as moral teachers. I have raised three kids, I can show them how to deal with children's question and confusion. I considered that my duty.
If their kids come home with questions about a picture book that has a king marrying another king, fury and a sense of violation are not the rational response. Instead, for anti-SSM, anti-gay parents, the simple and effective answer for a second grader is something like, “In this state, two men can legally marry. We don't agree with that and believe that it goes against the Bible's teachings.”
How hard is that? Isn't that part of being the primary moral instructor? Won't that help a child frame outside facts and information?
Yet, in California, the fearsome hammer of Massachusetts SSM and the dreaded possibility of having to speak with your kids become the tool of choice today. Of course, this is disingenuous. Of course, it's dishonest. It remains to be seen whether it will scare or convince anyone not already in the yes-on-8 camp.
By the bye, the good guys, the ones who want to expand marriage, are trying to put the truth to such lies. They could use our financial help right now.
It’s been seen. Their campaign is working. I’ve been phone banking, and have spoken to innumerable Californians who have no problem with gay people or SSM, but who have been scared by the Yes on 8 ads and so are thinking of voting “yes”. Some of them see the light when reminded that Prop 8 does not address education at all, so passing it would not address their concerns. They also get reminded that it is already quite illegal in CA for kids to be taught family or health subjects that their parents object to. But my rebuttal is often too little too late. We are losing many “no” voters because we don’t have the funds to blanket the airwaves with the counter arguments. The opposition has out fundraised us by $9 million dollars. We need money now. That’s all there is to it.
remember how some of the signature gatherers (many who were from cali) working on the constitutional amendment in massachusetts would let people think that what they were signing was pro-ssm? well, the Yes on 8 campaign is keeping up the tradition. we’ve had reports that they are deliberately confusing pro-equality voters about what a “yes” vote means, telling them that voting “yes” is supporting ssm. the fake christians show their true stripes again by their willingness to outright lie.
Vote NO on Prop 8 has a new ad out featuring the Superintendent of California Schools blasting the Yes on Hate lies about the schools. View the new ad at the link above (I couldn’t find the embed code…).
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p>Please, donate to No on 8 and get this ad on the air! The campaign has very limited funds, and we need to get this message out. The kid angle is the one that is really working for the opposition.
Right on, Laurel. These parents rights crazies are everywhere and they want to control what teachers do, put their fundy feelings into law, and censor the libraries. This is one expression of it, but there will be more.
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p>If anyone is wavering or has not contributed, he or she should think about stopping these people on this big one. Discouraging them is a noble goal.
Note that in one of the comments Phelps’ name comes up (color me surprised).
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p>http://scienceblogs.com/dispat…