Anti-Gay Marriage NOM Uses Children as Human Shields

While this new ad from the National Organization for Marriage (or LATENT) comically reminded me of Mr. Show with Bob and David's "What's a Gagortion?" sketch, it's also the latest example of an emerging trend: using children as cover for bigotry. Here's the ad: (h/t Jason Linkins)



Just last night, I wrote about Joe the Plumber taking a similar tack,

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PD toolbar!the second time he's brought up the fact that he doesn't want "queers" around his kids.

I think Jason Linkins summed it up nicely:

I think that the people behind this newish ad from panicky gay marriage freakout group National Organization for Marriage intended this to read as some sort of plaintive explication of how being asked to consider the possibility of gay marriage will make children fundamentally confused. This seems weird to me -- after all, it's not the concept of gay marriage that's likely to confuse children, it's homosexuality itself. Seems to me that once you get your kid over that hump, the concept of marriage becomes the easy part.

I agree, and I think this strips bare the notion that this is about anything but the gayness. In a child's mind, why would anyone oppose a union of 2 consenting adults who love each other? In fact, I defy anyone to explain to a child how preventing, and ending, marriages actually protects marriage?

This is NOM's cunning linguistic reach-around. By claiming to protect marriage, they can try to avoid the stink of being a hate group. The fact is, though, that they are not trying to protect anything. It is with this lie that they give themselves away. If they had a clear conscience, and God on their side, they'd call it what it is: denying, or refusing, the right of gay people to marry.

Here's an example. I oppose the right of pharmacists to refuse to dispense certain medications based on non-medical criteria. As such, I don't go around calling myself a Pharmacy Protector. I am an opponent of derelict pill-counters. Courage of my convictions, and all that.

I do have to give NOM props, though, for one "innovation." They eschew the tired "Adam and Steve" cliche for the updated, soon-to-be-featured-in-ALL-CAPS-blog-comments "Anna and Eve." That's probably all the progress we can expect out of them.

Finally, as a parent, I try to draw on my own experience. When I was a kid, you know what confused me? This book that my parents exposed me to, that had a guy with, like, a bag of wives, who went around killing people and cutting off a piece of each victim's penis. It made "Silence of the Lambs" look like a Busytown book. I'd be careful about exposing kids to that until they're older.

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