NOM: Veterans Fight Against Marriage Equality

Just like Faux News can'tdiscussanything without bringing up Benghazi, it appears that NOM can't discuss anything without bringing up how it is an argument for marriage discrimination.

As we know, yesterday was Memorial Day. Brian's message of recognition was as follows:

Happy Memorial Day! As we remember the brave men and women who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom, it sad to think how easily these freedoms have been trampled upon by an out-of-control judiciary, derelict politicians, or the mainstream media in the marriage debate.

I.e. The marriage equality movement is trampling the freedoms that veterans fight for, i.e. veterans fight against the marriage equality movement.

First, the factual fail. Contrary to what NOM suggested, no war was ever fought by American soldiers over marriage equality, for or against.

Secondly, the logical fail. NOM is saying that fighting for freedom is fighting against marriage equality. Earth to NOM: marriage equality increases freedom, because it makes it easier for people to access the fundamental right to marriage.

Thirdly: For God's sake, Brian, weren't you just complaining that our side was exploiting a legacy, the legacy of the African American civil rights movement?

From January 20 this year:

The struggle for civil rights in America as envisioned by Dr. King is ongoing, and I am personally very honored and proud to be able to call some of its greatest leaders my close friends and allies: people like Bishop Harry Jackson, Bishop George McKinney, Bishop David Hall, Pastor Eugene Rivers and so many others. And of course, there is Dr. King's own heroically pro-life, pro-marriage niece, Dr. Alveda King.

In a particular way I acknowledge with heartfelt gratitude the work of the Coalition of African American Pastors, led by Reverend Bill Owens and his wonderful wife Deborah, with whom I have been able to work closely over the years and whose excellent work for the true legacy of the Civil Rights movement cannot be praised too highly.

I say the true legacy of the Civil Rights movement because these great men and women know, as well as you and I, how that legacy has been hijacked by those who try to claim it for the purpose of redefining marriage and imposing a radical redefinition of the family on our society. They know — as we all know through simple common sense — that this hijacking is a travesty and an insult.

They know that the fiction of genderless marriage... the denial of children's right to the love of a mother and a father... and the denial of the important irreplaceable roles that men and women separately bring to parenting... they know that none of these is part of Dr. King's great dream which has helped so much to shape our nation over the past forty years!

From May 19, less than two weeks ago:

Last week, a coalition of black pastors said that it's incorrect and offensive to compare redefining marriage to the civil rights movement.

[...]

["]The court drew upon legal precedent which rightfully allowed interracial couples to marry, inherently raising similarities between racial equality and same-sex marriage.  The coalition has made clear that they believe this comparison is offensive."

[...]

The brief criticized the notion that the fight to redefine marriage is similar to the Civil Rights Movement, noting:

"Comparing the dilemmas of same-sex couples to the centuries of discrimination faced by Black Americans is a distortion of our country’s cultural and legal history. The disgraces and unspeakable privations in our nation’s history pertaining to the civil rights of Black Americans are unmatched.["]

[...]

The pastors expressed their offense at the comparison of black civil rights struggles to marriage redefinition.

"To state that marriage redefinition is in any way similar to the civil rights movement is intellectually empty, dishonest and manufactured[.]"

[...]

"On stage are many actors who pretend that redefining traditional marriage is as valid as Blacks fighting against the carnage of chattel slavery and the humiliation of Jim Crow. Never have I been so insulted. The curtain must be pulled down on this play of disinformation."

This outrage is hilariously misplaced. Comparing the LGBT rights movement to the African-American civil rights movement should not be offensive. Both are about achieving equality, freedom, and justice. Making the comparison need not imply that both groups have faced equal hardships. Of course black people have had it worse than LGBT people. No one's claiming the contrary. But the LGBT rights movement, like the African American right movement, is fighting for civil rights. The civil right to marriage. The civil right to freedom from discrimination, recognized in the federal government for many other classes. Once, it was fighting for the right just to exist as an LGBT person, not legal nationwide until 2003. Yes, black people had a worse situation, and today it unfortunately still exists to some extent. But this does not mean that LGBT rights are not civil rights, just because African American rights are.

Finally, NOM: If you don't want us to use the legacy of the civil rights movement to promote our goals, then you shouldn't use the legacy of dead veterans to promote your goals, your goals of inequality and discrimination. It's an insult to every veteran that has fought for the freedom, equality and liberty of the American people.

(My diary "NOM Now Thinks We're Hypocrites. Pot, Meet Kettle." will be amended to include their latest display of shamelessness.)