08/26/2010
How not to write a coming out card
"I'm saddened because I know Ken [Mehlman] and care about him as a person. Homosexuality not only has negative implications for society, it also has profound, well-documented negative physical and mental health consequences for those who engage in homosexual conduct as well.
This unfortunate confirmation helps explain the scandalous failure of many in the Republican establishment to vigorously uphold the values and policy positionsexpressed in the party's platform in 2004 and 2008, particularly the need to protect the definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman nationwide. While grassroots activists succeeded in passing marriage amendments in dozens of states across the country, they received little support and even outright resistance from Party officials at the national level, which contributed to the GOP's electoral failures in 2006 and 2008. Now we know one of the major reasons why.
With this announcement about his homosexuality, Ken also announced that he would join those who have mounted the assault on marriage through the activist courts. Not only does this run counter to the historical principles of the Republican Party, it stands in direct opposition to the Party's platform which is clear on the importance of marriage and family. The Party's unequivocal stand on life, marriage, and family is why many social conservatives have made the GOP their political home.
It is important for the conservative movement that the Republican Party remains committed to its longtime stance on core social issues. The Party and the movement will suffer if the GOP adopts a foolish strategy of seeking votes by pandering to the two-percent of the population who are homosexual or bisexual--and thereby alienating the majority of conservative voters."
-Tony Perkins, FRC
The say politics makes strange bedfellows. If that's the case, consider this Tony Perkins' request for Ken to sleep on the couch.
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08/26/2010
Video: To Angle out Reid, FRC puts pride before military's fall
We've yet to see the text from Harry Reid's pending legislation, The Put A Big Ass Pride Flag Outside The Capitol Act of 2010. And we must have missed the part of Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal that includes a pride parade. So we'll just have to trust the Family Research Council that both are there, and that both are the work of our activist Majority Leader:
FRC says they're airing this ad all over Nevada TV stations. Because why should David Copperfield have a monopoly on duping Nevadans with carefully manufactured illusions?
Tragic: NOM's Rhode Island director compares gay parents to dead parents
*AUDIO SOURCE: NOM's Chris Plante on Rhode Island radio [NOM]
Reliably volatile messaging's on the wall, but NOM doesn't seem to care. Seems to like it, even.
They've been featuring it on their Twitter page for months. But now the National Organization For Marriage has solidified their bond to Louis "gays want pedophilia, polygamy, and prostitution" Marinelli's incendiary "Protect Marriage: One Man, One Woman" Facebook page, embedding that very F'book wall into their TwoMillionForMarriage site:
So why is this a thing of note? Well, because this is a Facebook page where conversations like this one are playing out on a daily basis:
Audio: Stachowski shocked -- SHOCKED! -- by gays' principled spine
Buffalo, New York's Sen. Bill Stachowski (D) is none too happy with those pro-equality activists who he helped to deprive of a principled civil gain:
(click to play audio clip)
*AUDIO SOURCE: Bill Stachowski robocall [Fight Back NY]
Wait, Fight Back NY is "disguising their real agenda" to make it sound like they're about something other than marriage equality? Uhm, Bill...
...what exactly do you want them to do to elucidate their mission: Put Lady Liberty in an FBNY-branded wedding dress and veil? Because from our perspective, they're carrying their pro-marriage equality torch about as highly and glowingly as they possibly can!
But yes, Sen. Stachowski, you're right: Marriage equality is, undeniably, one issue. Though with it come a whole host of other matters. About respect. About church/state separation. Equal protection under the law. Basic fairness. Democratic values. Courage of convictions. And in a state where same-sex marriages are recognized but not performed: The economic impact of forcing destination weddings upon the Empire State's gay residents. Those are concepts that go beyond just a Met and a Yankee's Subway Series wedding ceremony. These are crucial constitutional matters we're talking about!
Oh, and considering this writer personally knows at least three Fight Back NY officials who are New Yorkers directly affected by the state's marriage law, this "out of state" claim is falling on deaf ears. Not to mention that legislative bias in a state that has a reputation for progress and freedom is a notion that affects the entire nation. The entire world.
From FMA supporters to FMA scapegoats: Ken schmoozes with a new kind of Advocate
More Mehlman, this time from a chat with The Advocate's ever-intrepid Kerry Eleveld:
ADVOCATE: There’s a lot of gays and lesbians and other people who are still angry about the 2004 election and the fact that that those 11 amendments were on the ballot. Is there anything that you would like to say about that in particular?
Ken Mehlman: Look, I have a lot of friends who ask questions and who are angry about it. I understand that folks are angry, I don’t know that you can change the past. As I’ve said, one thing I regret a lot is the fact that I wasn’t in the position I am today where I was comfortable with this part of my life, where I was able to be an advocate against that [strategy] and able to be someone who argued against it. I can’t change that – it is something I wish I could and I can only try to be helpful in the future.
But I understand the anger and I talk to friends about it – it’s something that I hear from a number of friends.
ADVOCATE: As the strategy developed, did it ever make you uncomfortable?
Mehlman: Yes.
There were a lot of people, including people that supported the [Federal Marriage Amendment], for example, that worried about this being divisive.
I obviously found it particularly challenging to deal with and, because I wasn’t in the place I am today where I’m comfortable with this part of my life, it was really hard and it was particularly hard because there was really nobody who knew this about me and so there was no one I could even talk to about it. So it was a period that I’m very glad is over.
The Ken Mehlman Interview [Advocate]
We're listening and trying to be sympathetic. But to have been so completely unaware of your own sexuality as an adult in your mid-to-late 30s? And regardless of that point: To have been so unaware of the unprincipled nature of civil discrimination no matter how much personal stake you might have had in its effects? Not only does Mr. Mehlman have to understand the anger -- he's also got to understand the confusion as well. This is not a dumb man we're talking about.
*CPAC '04:
Video: Nature, nurture, or Pam Grier? Wanda discusses
Does anyone else find the image of a lil' Wanda Sykes absolutely hysterical? I see her with braids and uncomfortable dresses, but that same smart mouth. Cute as a button, sharp as a tack.
Mehlman '05: Activist judges 'remov[ed] a pivotal decision from the hands of voters'
"Or consider the Massachusetts Supreme Court, which last year took it upon itself to redefine marriage, again removing a pivotal decision from the hands of the
voters, and making it that much more difficult to come to a national consensus on the issue through the democratic process.
These are large issues, ones fundamental to our democracy.
They have implications to how we live our lives … and how we, as the leadership of the Republican Party, do our jobs.
When the 9th Circuit determined that the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional because it included the words “under God”, it offended all of our sensibilities.
When the Supreme Court decides that your local government can take your property and knock your house down in order to build a hotel and increase its tax revenue, it offends our sensibilities.
When federal judges overturn commonsense legislation like Megan’s Law, designed to protect innocent victims from predators and passed in some version by every state in the nation, it offends our sensibilities.
The American people voted for President Bush last year for many reasons … and one of them was because they knew that he was working to curb this kind of judicial excess, by appointing good people like John Roberts."
RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman Remarks To RNC Annual Summer Meeting, Aug. 05, 2005 [GOP.com (archived)]
