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 lobbyOctober 18th, 2012
From the Baltimore Sun:
Gallaudet University is asking the group opposing Maryland’s same-sex marriage law to take down a new commercial that features a university staff member who was suspended for signing a referendum petition.
…
“The video they are using, the ad, is actually copyrighted by us,” said Katherine Murphy, executive director of communications and public relations at Gallaudet in Washington. “We’re in touch with our attorneys to have them follow up with the group to ask them to take down the ad.”Deana Bass, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Marriage Alliance, said the group has not heard any formal complaints about the spot, and it has no intention of removing it.
“It is a fair use of the footage,” said Bass. “At this point, [the incident] is in the public space. We want people to understand what is at stake with Question 6.”
On Tuesday, J. Wyndal Gordon, a lawyer for McCaskill, told The Baltimore Sun that his client had not agreed to be featured in any advertising about the same-sex marriage referendum. He said McCaskill’s decision to sign the petition to allow voters to decide the issue was not an indication of her position on same-sex marriage.
Gordon later told a Washington television station that if McCaskill “had her druthers,” the commercial would be pulled. He did not return calls Wednesday evening.
It’s fair to note that she absolutely does have her “druthers” about her response to the ad. She could publicly denounce those who seek to use her story to their advantage. She has not done so. She has accused Gallaudet of a host of things, but she has not had one single public word of criticism for the anti-gay campaign. One must assume that is because she doesn’t want to.
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Dante
October 19th, 2012
One begins to wonder if McCaskill engineers this entire mess simply to have something for Maryland Marriage Alliance to use.
If her intentions has been innocent, she would have been the first to complain about the use of her situation to sway voters.
Priya Lynn
October 19th, 2012
McCaskill’s lawyer said her signing the petition was not an indication of her position on same sex marriage. If that was the case she would have wanted to clarify that and would have publicly stated she does support same sex marriage. I can’t believe there is any reason for her not to make such a statement other than that she is opposed to marriage equality.
Blake
October 19th, 2012
Why are you still trying to martyr her, Priya?
If we’re going to get our rights via the legislative process than we are subject to the legislative mechanisms in place. Including People’s Vetos. This is not Prop 8, where they’re using a Constitutional Amendment inappropriately as a People’s Veto. This process is a part of every bill that passes in Maryland. The petition and the referendum are for related to and directly about the Bill itself. Not the underlying issues. One might vote against the bill & still support gay marriage. Because GAY MARRIAGE IS NOT THE ISSUE OF THE REFERENDUM; gay marriage is only the subject of the bill put up for approval by the people of Maryland. I thought posting the link to a copy of the standard petition form would make this clear; but I’m sorry you still don’t understand how the legislative process works in Maryland.
So far, the only thing I can tell about this woman is that she believes in Direct Democracy. And while I disagree with direct democracy I’m certainly not going to support the idea that one’s pro-or-con gay-marriage position can be determined based on one’s views about direct democracy.
Emily
October 19th, 2012
I think you mean copyrighted, not copywrited. (It’s slightly confusing, I know, but copywriting is completely unrelated to copyright–unless your copywriting is copyrighted!)
Timothy Kincaid
October 19th, 2012
Thank you, Emily. I corrected the headline.
I guess sometimes I just don’t write right.
Ryan
October 19th, 2012
Blake, you don’t really believe she’s neutral, do you? And besides, her original reason for signing the petition was because her church’s pastor inspired her to. Unlike McCaskill, her pastor makes no claims to be neutral.
Blake
October 19th, 2012
Ryan, I don’t know what she is and I’m sick and tired of people declaring that they do know.
Priya Lynn
October 19th, 2012
Blake, neutral people don’t aren’t concerned about having marriage equality put up for a vote – only anti-marriage people are.
Ryan
October 20th, 2012
Well Blake, I do know and I’m sick and tired of apologists claiming they don’t know.
Blake
October 21st, 2012
People who naively believe in direct democracy would, Priya. I don’t know; you don’t know. She hasn’t been fired yet; when that happens (or she’s reinstated) then we’ll know what others who know her better, are closer to the situation, and have information and knowledge that is not accessible to us believe.
Ryan, I’m sorry that the world’s misleading, confusing & uncertain & that there’s more categories in life than “good-guys”/”bad-guys”
But I’ve said my piece & made my point & I’ll shut-up now.
Robert
October 21st, 2012
Priya,
Your rant about only anti-marriage people being for putting marriage on the ballot is a bunch of hooey. I live in California, where right after the 8 fiasco, we, yes we, the GAY communitty were the ones debating if we wanted to try to get it on the ballot again. Funny, isn’t it, but the pro-gay marriage crowd is the one wanting it on the ballot here. So what was that again??
Priya Lynn
October 21st, 2012
Blake, you’re willfully blind. I won’t be accepting your demand that I be so as well.
Robert if the Maryland marriage law isn’t put on the ballot marriage equality will become law. If McCaskill wanted Maryland marriage equality she need do nothing. The only reason to want it on the ballot is to prevent marriage equality.
In California after prop 8 the situation is the opposite. Marriage equality is against the law. People who are anti-marriage don’t want it put on the ballot there, after prop 8 only people in California who want marriage equality want it put on the ballot.
So, when marriage equality is the law only anti-gay people want to vote on it. When marriage equality is against the law only pro-gay people want to vote on it.
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