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 lobbyNovember 4th, 2009
Equality New Jersey is being proactive in their efforts to get the legislature and governor to legalize same-sex marriage before Governor-Elect Christie is inaugurated. Christie has vowed to veto any measures that provide marriage equality.
Rather than wait and respond to a campaign of lies about schools and children, they set out first and defined the message. On election night they ran ads seeking to build a groundswell of support.
The first, Marsha and Louise, features a couple for whom civil unions were inadequate.
The second features a straight woman who compares her hospital treatment to that of another couple in a civil union.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_yPbt4vUdY’ >watch?v=e_yPbt4vUdYI am not certain as to what type of advertising is most effecting in influencing legislative support or building groundswell. But I do have some observations.
As far as emotional appeals, it doesn’t get much better than Marsha and Louise. This is not some discussion of theoretical inadequacies of civil unions.
This ad featured real people, good people, burdened with the confusion that comes with civil unions and finding themselves unable to provide for physically and mentally handicapped children. Who is going to oppose healthcare for handicapped children?
Although I knew it was a political ad, I still felt myself pulled in and experienced empathy for this couple and disgust for their plight.
The second, Emelia, though weaker in specific evidence of harm, comes across as less practiced and more genuine. It has an ability, I think, to speak to New Jerseyans where they are and in a language that is more organic.
I especially liked “…they were in that civil union, which I don’t know, that, that limbo…” I think it reminds the viewer that they, too, have no idea exactly what comes with a civil union.
And they are all very, very New Jersey.
Latest Posts
Featured Reports
In this original BTB Investigation, we unveil the tragic story of Kirk Murphy, a four-year-old boy who was treated for “cross-gender disturbance” in 1970 by a young grad student by the name of George Rekers. This story is a stark reminder that there are severe and damaging consequences when therapists try to ensure that boys will be boys.
When we first reported on three American anti-gay activists traveling to Kampala for a three-day conference, we had no idea that it would be the first report of a long string of events leading to a proposal to institute the death penalty for LGBT people. But that is exactly what happened. In this report, we review our collection of more than 500 posts to tell the story of one nation’s embrace of hatred toward gay people. This report will be updated continuously as events continue to unfold. Check here for the latest updates.
In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that “[Paul] Cameron’s ‘science’ echoes Nazi Germany.” What the SPLC didn”t know was Cameron doesn’t just “echo” Nazi Germany. He quoted extensively from one of the Final Solution’s architects. This puts his fascination with quarantines, mandatory tattoos, and extermination being a “plausible idea” in a whole new and deeply disturbing light.
On February 10, I attended an all-day “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.
Prologue: Why I Went To “Love Won Out”
Part 1: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Part 2: Parents Struggle With “No Exceptions”
Part 3: A Whole New Dialect
Part 4: It Depends On How The Meaning of the Word "Change" Changes
Part 5: A Candid Explanation For "Change"
At last, the truth can now be told.
Using the same research methods employed by most anti-gay political pressure groups, we examine the statistics and the case studies that dispel many of the myths about heterosexuality. Download your copy today!
And don‘t miss our companion report, How To Write An Anti-Gay Tract In Fifteen Easy Steps.
Anti-gay activists often charge that gay men and women pose a threat to children. In this report, we explore the supposed connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, the conclusions reached by the most knowledgeable professionals in the field, and how anti-gay activists continue to ignore their findings. This has tremendous consequences, not just for gay men and women, but more importantly for the safety of all our children.
Anti-gay activists often cite the “Dutch Study” to claim that gay unions last only about 1½ years and that the these men have an average of eight additional partners per year outside of their steady relationship. In this report, we will take you step by step into the study to see whether the claims are true.
Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council submitted an Amicus Brief to the Maryland Court of Appeals as that court prepared to consider the issue of gay marriage. We examine just one small section of that brief to reveal the junk science and fraudulent claims of the Family “Research” Council.
The FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics aren’t as complete as they ought to be, and their report for 2004 was no exception. In fact, their most recent report has quite a few glaring holes. Holes big enough for Daniel Fetty to fall through.
“Google” is a trademark of Google Inc.
© Box Turtle Bulletin. All Rights Reserved.
Posts 
Posts via daily email:
Amicus
November 4th, 2009
I am not certain as to what type of advertising is most effecting in influencing legislative support or building groundswell. But I do have some observations.
====================
I can’t say much about legislation advertising, but I can a little about product advertising.
If your assessment is that the competition already has an estblished product, then there is no short-cut, no short-term groundswell.
To capture the market from such a product, one almost has to engage in a lengthy, costly campaign.
Companies like Coca Cola continue to spend enormous sums on advertising, even though everyone already knows the product. Continuously investing in this way keeps an established brand, and any rival to Coke would have to spend almost a prohibitive amount.
People who can successfully run what might be called a “strategic ad campaign” to upset an entrenched product or company are rare and worth every penny. Truly, the campaign is conceptualized from start-to-finish. The ones that people study in the casebooks are masterpieces, I think. Of course, there are plenty that fail…
Regan DuCasse
November 6th, 2009
Whenever the opposition keeps saying that marriage is about children and their well being, isn’t it amazing how they can look at gay parents and lie through every part of their face on that argument alone?
Maggie Gallagher, nor Brian Brown, nor any of the myriad spokes faces of the anti marriage movement have themselves tried to adopt a child with special needs into THEIR homes.
Marriage is essentially about ENHANCING life, if not necessarily INDUCING it.
A quality of life issue, not whether or not you make a life.
These women are two of many, many thousands who give life AND a better life to children, marriage would make those lives even better.
So, the opponents are effectively doing without saying: damned do or don’t, they don’t care about a large segment of the population having self reliance, and MORE children having their needs met.
That about right?
That’s something that can’t be said enough to the public at large.
So is the question before the public, why WOULDN’T anyone agree with self reliance AND more people meeting their own needs and that of their children at no expense to anything?
I still haven’t heard an answer to that very rational question and expectation.
Leave A Comment