Let’s be honest: the other side lies. Their claims range from the annoyingly cherry-picked statistics (gays and lesbians are more likely to be depressed or commit suicide) to the fear-inducing predictions (gays and lesbians will molest/recruit your kids) to the what the f*ck?! (did you know that the Nazis were gay?)
After they lie, they take people’s fears and make up a slogan to make them feel as though, not only are they in danger, but they need to take a stand for what is right. They need to fight! Someone is here to f*ck things up for their beautiful and safe life and they’re not going to take it! This is war, they cry, a war on marriage.
So, they take this to the masses, the sleeping masses, and they wake them up just enough to say, hey, what? My marriage? My way of life? My children? Hell, no! They scare them into thinking that if they don’t fight this, that life as they know it will end.
And, really, what exactly will end?
Will they lose their house? Will they lose their kids? Will they lose their job? Will they lose their friends? Will they lose their rights? Will they lose their life?* Of course not. They will simply lose the ability to tell others how they must lives their lives. As though they ever should have had that right to begin with.
But, it doesn’t matter. The other side has grabbed the language that has put them on the offensive, leaving us on the defensive. That language has forced us to be constantly defending our position, rather than trying to make them explain theirs.
Challenge them. Ask them why they they have declared a war on marriage. Ask them why they are fighting the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Ask them why they think majority rule should apply to minority rights. Ask them why they are attacking the families that have children, by calling their families abominations. Ask them why they think that the separation of church and state doesn’t matter. Ask them why they hate marriage, since they are fighting people getting married. And then, since this affects children, both lgbt and the children of lgbt people, ask them why they hate children.
The point is, we need to take the lead. We can’t keep defending our position. That puts us where THEY want us. They lead, we follow. We need to take that away from them and make them follow us. We need to box them in until they can’t move anymore. We need to shut them down, before they do harm to one more person.
That statistic they like to bring up about lgbt people being more likely to commit suicide?** They know they are the reason. And they don’t care.
This isn’t about people getting on TV and making the fight "big." This is about making the fight deep. Someone says something to you? Confront them, right there and then, hard. Talk to your kids. Make sure they know that this is a subject they should NOT stay quiet about. Make sure they know it’s okay to say something, to anyone, at anytime, if they need to fight this prejudice. One of the best ways to fight intolerance is to have your kids teach tolerance.
And so, I challenge Maggie Gallagher and her ilk: Why do YOU hate marriage? You don’t want consenting adults to get married. I can only assume that you think people shouldn’t get married. Kinda strange for someone running the National Organization for Marriage. You know some of those couples have kids? And that they just want to make that legal commitment to each other? That their kids are very aware that YOU are blocking their parents marriage and are, in fact, parading around the country with pictures of nooses and a death threat for their parents?
So, Maggie et al.,
Why do you hate children?
*These all are, of course, things that LGBT people risk everyday, especially in states that afford little to no protection.
**This is one of those cherry-picked statistics. It is true, but the reason has to due with the bullying and intolerance; it is NOT innate to the life of an LGBT person.
