Gay marriage is back in the spotlight. Well probably for only a short time, it has made headlines around the nation with the decisions of the Iowa Supreme Court and Vermont State legislation. With two huge defeats, anti-gay marriage activists are pulling out the stops in their latest attempt to stop the recently created same-sex marriage (SSM) momentum.
By saying “pulling out the stops,” I mean using going back-in-time and reviving the old mantra that “gays are scary” and the GLBT community will invade your town and causing horrific damage to your lives. You just need to look at the newest anti –SSM ad produced by the National Organization for Marriage. The NOM has launched a $1.5 million campaign to, as they claim, “…protect marriage and religious liberty throughout the nation.” That is unless you’re gay of course. There ad, shamelessly titled “A Gathering Storm” shows a wide diverse of people scared of the gay marriage movement. It features citizens horribly photo-shopped in front of storm clouds with the first line of the ad claiming “There’s a storm coming” and “I am afraid.” Translation is “gays scare me” My favorite portions is when a woman claims that same-sex couples have not been “content” with living together how they want. Another translation is “well, we aren’t allowed to arrest them anymore for being gay, what else do they want?” I guess they can thank Lawrence v. Texas for that set-back.
This advertisement is desperate and laughable. It tries, once again, to link gay marriage to ruining the lives of straight people, which makes no sense. Someone Jake marrying Mike is going to ruin the rights and liberty of Mary and John. Honestly, you could EASILY switch a few words and phrases and make this a pro-SSM marriage ad.
After watching this ad, I decided to poke around that the NOM for marriage sight, and their old-fashion way of ‘fighting’ SSM, which are starting not work, are still being in use. I decided to click on the “Talking Points” of the site, because this is where you will get a good sense of what the message of the campaign really is. It starts off with a bang:
“..the single most effective message is:
"Gays and Lesbians have a right to live as they choose,
they don’t have the right to redefine marriage for all of us."
Very similar to the NOM ad, in-which NOM points out that we aren’t allowed to arrest two men for having sex together anymore, so why are they complaining? Apparently that should be enough for the GLBT community. What a joke.
Another interesting talking point:
Language to avoid at all costs: "Ban same-sex marriage." Our base loves this wording. So do supporters of SSM. They know it causes us to lose about ten percentage points in polls. Don’t use it. Say we’re against “redefining marriage” or in favor or “marriage as the union of husband and wife” NEVER “banning same-sex marriage.”
This is a smart move on NOM’s part because what it does is it shifts the victim from the GLBT community (you know the ones who are being discriminated against) to NOM followers. NOM does not want to sound like they hate gays or our trying to discriminate them, they want to blame gays for trying to change marriage or probably ruining society. BUT what this wording shows is that anti-SSM is on the defensive, and not winning the battle anymore. A good sign for the GLTB community.
NOM is on the defensive, and their latest tactic are proof of that.
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