Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyApril 29th, 2009
Miss (anti-gay) USA contestant Carrie Prejean has agreed to appear in a television ad for the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) as part of the its broader $1.5 million ad campaign against same-sex marriage. This is the same group that produced the histrionic “Gathering Storm” ad.
“She is attacked viciously for having the courage to speak up for her truth and her values,” reads a NOM press release. “But Carrie’s courage inspired a whole nation and a whole generation of young people because she chose to risk the Miss USA crown rather than be silent about her deepest moral values.”
Again, this is gay marriage opponents trying to win the case against gay marriage by sidestepping the actual issue; instead of arguing about gay marriage per se, they argue about consequences it will have — namely, curbing the ability or religious organizations to speak out. (Or in the case of Prejean, costing you — gasp! — the Miss USA crown.) Their language is decidedly Orwellian: this is not an anti-gay-marriage campaign, but a “religious liberty ad campaign.”
Also note that banning gay marriage would not have prevented the outcry against Prejean. In a public forum, she submitted her view and had it scrutinized. As I said in a previous post, some of these conservative religious groups seem to think religious freedom entails immunity from any sort of criticism; they want the marketplace of ideas to fall silent whenever something under the banner of religion is at issue.
One of the most powerful sections of the Iowa Supreme Court’s decision explicitly treats the charge implicit in NOM’s tactic: that allowing gay marriage infringes on religious rights.
Our constitution does not permit any branch of government to resolve these types of religious debates and entrusts to courts the task of ensuring government avoids them… civil marriage must be judged under our constitutional standards of equal protection and not under religious doctrines or the religious views of individuals.
The justices rightfully conclude that the government should not be involved in religious debates. This is important not only to maintain the separation of church and state, but also to protect religious organizations themselves: why are religious organizations looking to the courts and legislative bodies to resolve a theological issue? Allowing gay marriage is in fact a neutral position: it allows religious organizations that want to perform gay marriages to do so and allows those that do not to refuse to.
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Ben in Oakland
April 29th, 2009
A pretty blond girl, silly as a goose and with a bubble for a brain is coming….
…and I am afraid.
Supporters of beauty contests want to take this far beyond beauty and take away our freedom of religion….
…and I am afraid.
I am a california fag who must choose between beauty and stupidity…
…and I am afraid.
At least the gnomes at NOM are going to use a real person, but possibly fake boobs, this time. May history repeat itself, for,as Karl Marx wrote history usually occurs twice: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.
With a bit of luck, we’ll get farce both times. As Groucho Marx might have written…
what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the proaganda
Bruno
April 29th, 2009
If we don’t get farce from the ad itself, we’ll get it from a Blonde Dumbella appearance on Anderson Cooper or Larry King or Katie Couric. They wouldn’t let her go on MSNBC I’m sure. Actually, if they’re smart, they won’t let her go on any more talk shows unless it’s on Fox News with a straight male.
Alex
April 29th, 2009
“But Carrie’s courage inspired a whole nation and a whole generation of young people because she chose to risk the Miss USA crown rather than be silent about her deepest moral values.”
Wow, that’s a very courageous sacrifice indeed. Carrie Prejean is like a female Jesus Christ. What a martyr!
(I can’t freaking WAIT to see the new ad!!)
Candace
April 29th, 2009
OMG, the parodies are going to be the. best. ever. Can’t wait.
Chad
April 29th, 2009
Fred Clark a.k.a. Slacktivist had some pretty interesting and insightful comments on the mentality behind groups like NOM:
The word I’m stretching for here, Stanley Hauerwas would say, is “constantinianism” — the inversion and perversion of Christianity that occurred when a religion of slaves and women and the poor became a religion of emperors and empires. Constantinian faith requires and assumes the establishment of an official, privileged religion. It comes to believe, in the language of the First Amendment, that its own free exercise depends on such an establishment — that its free exercise is incompatible with the free exercise of any other religion (or of no religion at all).
We’ve illustrated this before with the religious practice of wearing burkhas — or, more accurately, the religious practice of requiring the women one controls to wear burkhas. That practice is intrinsically hegemonic, intrinsically constantinian. It cannot be left as a matter of individual freedom or conscience. It’s not sufficient for those who believe in that practice for only the women of their household or congregation or sect to be clad in burkhas. That still leaves open the possibility that one might be exposed to the immodest displays of the wrists and ankles of other women in the market or the public square. The logic of the burkha requires that all women — every woman that every man might see — is fully sheathed so as not to assault the eyes of the faithful.
We see this same burkha-logic at work in that “gathering storm” ad produced by the National Organization for [Our Kind and Only Our Kind of] Marriage.
“Some who advocate for same-sex marriage,” the intern says, “have taken the issue far beyond same-sex couples.”
“They want to bring the issue into my life,” says the closeted actor (subversively playing up a bit of a lisp) who can’t believe he’s doing this for a paycheck.
“My freedom will be taken away,” emotes the young woman.
The script for this ad purportedly has no grievance with others living however they want to live — but only insofar as their freedom doesn’t impinge upon our right to live in a world where we never have to see them, or to acknowledge their existence. That “takes away” our freedom to live as privileged hegemons. And since we can no longer distinguish between our faith itself and the privileged status of that faith, we perceive this as religious persecution — as an injustice against us.
Your freedom threatens my freedom to live in a world in which people like you are not free to do the sorts of things you might do with your freedom. “And I am afraid.”
That’s burkha-logic in a nutshell.
Johnson
April 29th, 2009
“I’m a Former Miss California, unable to get a decent hair, makeup or nail job” “And I am AFRAID”
homer
April 29th, 2009
We are a rainbow coalition of silicon-enhanced runner-ups…. and we are afraid…. Afraid that the Homos will ruin our hairdos and poorly apply the plaster we call makeup. Afraid that the Homos will ruin traditional beauty pageants by competing in them as trannies! I am personally afraid of Amanda Lepore, who I met in person, because her fake breasts are much, much larger than mine…
Mark in Colorado
April 29th, 2009
To quote some average gay guy: she’s “harmless”.
Well she is less something anyway.
John
April 29th, 2009
Interesting, so she has decided to follow in Anita Bryant’s footsteps after all. While this in no way justifies Hilton’s earlier response, a NOM ad of all things? This youngg woman is in dire need of better advisors. That alone is worthy of parody. Since this action places her firmly within the public arena now, meaning she has to take the good with the bad like everyone else in that arena, I withdraw my previous objections with the sole exception of course concerning Hilton. He remains a putz regardless.
RU486
April 30th, 2009
It’s interesting how much the homobigots’ scare tactics have evolved over the years. Not that long ago they were claiming that predatory gays would molest children. Now, the big scare tactic is that gays might say mean things about you on their blogs. I’d call that progress.
occono
April 30th, 2009
RU486, the old “Recruitment” trope is still going though, apparently.
http://www.towleroad.com/2009/04/disgusting-antigay-opinion-piece-in-the-des-moines-register.html
staci
April 30th, 2009
I hope her ad is more hilarious than harmful. I can’t wait to see what Colbert does with it!!!
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