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As Anti-Marriage Group Wants ‘Adult’ Debate, Senator Frankin Expresses Dismay Over Minnesota Vote
05/23/11-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
NOM Gloating Over Their Own Homophobia And Bigotry
Saturday night, while no one was looking, the Minnesota House took a vote in which they decided to send to the voters the a ballot initiative that would enshrine discrimination into the state’s constitution. There are now several responses to this act, not least of which is Minnesota Senator Al Franken, who has expressed his dismay over the vote.
Many of the major LGBT Activist groups have yet to issue any kind of real statement about this. Kate Kendall of the National Center for Lesbian Rights posted a brief comment on LezGetReal stating “NCLR has been in contact with OutFront Minnesota and will be issuing a statement after coordinating with the lead organization on the ground about how to best inform people and direct them to action.”
Senator Franken had this to say to the Advocate today “Every Minnesotan deserves dignity and equal treatment under the law, and our state’s same-sex couples should have the same right to marry as anyone else — period. This amendment would do nothing more than write discrimination into our state’s constitution and add to the barriers same-sex couples already face to the full recognition of their families. I’m hopeful that common sense and compassion will prevail and that this amendment will be defeated.”
Of course, the anti-marriage group Minnesota Family Council wants this to be an amicable push towards enshrining discrimination in the state’s constitution. Of course, in so doing, their president Tom Prichard has said things like “our goal is to not make it personal. I think we can have a respectful discussion and conversation on the importance of marriage in our state, where there’s widespread support that the best environment to raise children is with a loving mother and father.”
Ahem…there is only wide spread support for that because people like Prichard have lied repeatedly to people over the issue of lesbian and gay parents. In fact, studies have shown that children raised in lesbian and gay parents are just as well adjusted and healthy as those who are raised by two opposite sex parents.
While it’s difficult to see how one can cast the (much discredited) argument that gay people are unfit parents as a “respectful discussion” that is not “personal,” it’s even harder to accept that argument from the Minnesota Family Council — an organization that has spent years likening homosexuality to “incest, adultery, bestiality, or pedophilia.” For instance, this “Informed Answers to Gay Rights Arguments” pamphlet (PDF) from the Minnesota Family Council website argues that “Some homosexuals, especially lesbians, consciously choose a homosexual lifestyle as part of a political agenda,” warning that “The homosexual population includes a disproportionate number of pedophiles.” Ironically, the pamphlet — which is used by the organization to deny gay couples the right to marry — also notes, “The norm of homosexuality is promiscuity. It is rare that even ‘monogamous’ gay couples do not supplement their relationships with other gay partners.”
It is a common situation for the anti-gay groups out there. They often claim to want to have an adult conversation with regards to the subject, but often resort to lies and distortions in order to try and make people vote against the reality. They use the Bible, and all sorts of distorted or even made up facts in order to try and attack the LGBT Community.
Just watch, there will be no kind of actual debate with real facts.
Addendum:
The White House has said this about the vote in Minnesota:
“The President has long opposed divisive and discriminatory efforts to deny rights and benefits to same sex couples or to take such rights away. While he believes this is an issue best addressed by the states, he also believes that committed gay couples should have the same rights and responsibilities afforded to any married couple in this country.”
6 Responses to As Anti-Marriage Group Wants ‘Adult’ Debate, Senator Frankin Expresses Dismay Over Minnesota Vote
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AJ
May 24, 2011 at 10:42 am
I’m Minnesotan. I live here. I can tell you that every single GLBT person in the state was tuned in. That the churches opposed glbt marriage equality were all tuned in. That editorials all over the state have been addressing this for the past three weeks (since the amendment was introduced), even places that are not progressive nor sympathetic to the equality cause came out against the amendment. That big business in the Twin Cities wrote letters opposed to this. The U of M Law School wrote a public, open letter to the legislators opposing this. George Bush’s Legal Council on ETHICS wrote an open, public letter opposing this. There was coverage every single day in both major state-wide papers and small independents. Our advocacy groups were all over this, sending out tweets, facebook updates and emails, sometimes hourly. the HRC was too little too late, unfortunately, but sent out a call to action, and 230,000 emails CRASHED the Legislative servers with emails from equality supporters (reported on other blogs).
I agree with you that on the national scale peole were not paying attention. Every time I got an email update on someone’s deportation hearing in NY, for example, I responded with “hey — we need a little help out here in MN.” But in the state, all of the state media, the eyes of the GLBT community and the eyes of the state were on every step along the way. I was at the state capitol yesterday — just happened it was a lobbying day for educators, but the timing was tough. I saw my REP, someone I’ve been working on for over two years to see how important marriage equality is — he’s been an opponant in the past. In the past 2 months he has had a change of heart and now sees the issue as a civil rights issue, as opposed to through his catholic faith. He’s done a complete 180, and delivered a 13 minute speech on the House floor on Saturday night, a speech that was reported state-wide and in our district, sadly, will cost him his seat (that’s another piece of evidence that tells you people were watching — my rep will face a million plus dollar reelection campaign for a STATE Rep seat, which is unheard of) When he came out of the House chambers and saw us (teachers) there waiting to speak with him on education, he crossed over to me, grabbed me in a huge bear hug, and through tears into my shoulder said, “I’m so [effing] sorry. We gave it everything we had. I am so pissed that these a$$holes down here think they can do this to PEOPLE. We had to walk through your people, here every day, by the hundreds respectfully and peacefully asking us to be DECENT, and we couldn’t break their ranks. I’m so [effing] sorry.”
It is hard for me to accept what appeared to be a out-of-state report suggesting that noone was watching. We were. We are. We watched, horrified, while the GOP did this in plain view every single day — the Senate debate was mid-afternoon. The Rules Committees were held in mid-afternoons. The hate-monger Pastor they brought in on Friday morning to open the House was a publicized attack that was repeated across the state causing a fire storm that nearly derailed their efforts. They held the vote on Saturday, not because nobody was watching, but because they couldn’t hold it off any further or they would have lost more momentum after Dean’s opening prayer and the growing support for our cause. Maybe you guys who live elsewhere weren’t watching, but we were all watching. And the most disgusting thing with our current GOP majorities, just like in Wisconsin, is that they have no problem bringing up the most disgusting, divisive legislation with a straight face in the light of day — they really do have no shame and are not compelled to hide behind their actions, but rather feel justified in having them. The only thing they wanted to avoid was bad PR, and once they realized they couldn’t, they held the stinking vote anyway. Find the roll call online — you can hear people chanting in the halls of the capitol outside the doors as the vote was taken. We were there, either presently or as engaged people. We saw what they were able to do, and will NEVER, EVER take a local election (state-reps) for granted again. Minutes after the vote, our collective group to fight this amendment was launched, all ready to go. Look up Minnesotans UNITED for ALL Families.
Bridgette P. LaVictoire
May 24, 2011 at 12:58 pm
AJ,
So far, LGR has reached out to try and get ahold of people in the LGBT Community in Minnesota in order to try and help. We did not receive any replies, and had to get our information from the newspapers in your state rather than directly from the groups. We on the national stage have not had a lot of contact from the guys in Minnesota, so we’ve been struggling to get anything posted. It is disappointing that it took this characterization and this vote to actually get people to start realizing that there is a lot of people out here who want to help.
AJ
May 24, 2011 at 8:42 am
as far as 4 pm on a Saturday — the vote actually happened at 11 pm — but there was media there — print, radio and TV, all twittering, too, the glbt community was there — and they knew we were NOT going away. I’ve talked to DFL Reps who stood w us, and they are still emotionally drained today.
Bridgette P. LaVictoire
May 24, 2011 at 10:10 am
AJ,
I have noted that you keep going on as if people were paying attention. The vast majority of people were not, and the GOP did this vote when they did so as to minimize their exposure. Something that, yourself, admit! Just because you can point to a few people who were there to cover it does not mean anyone was paying attention to it.
AJ
May 24, 2011 at 8:40 am
It wasn’t that the GOP was ashamed. They were avoiding the spotlight because they were not doing what they were sent to do. The govt in MN goes into shutdown because they do not have a budget yet.
They pushed this whole thing through in less than a month start to end. They weren’t ashamed. There is a difference between not wanting people to see what you are doing because you know the PR is bad and being ashamed. They had to walk past all those glbt people and allies at the capitol every day and look them in the eye. One of the protesters, as the speaker of the House walked by, put her hand out for him to shake — she said, “I wanted him to look me in the eye, acknowledge me as a person.” The reps were not ashamed, but were in lock step and in total disregard for humanity.
It is all part of a huge power grab nationwide. Voter ID, gay rights, collective bargaining, tax cuts at the top and corporations being able to act as individuals to fund campaigns.
AJ
May 23, 2011 at 10:21 pm
You say “no one was looking.” Actually, ALL of us in the state WERE looking. Our state organizations OutFrontMN and Project 515, among others, led a coordinated effort that had GLBT people and allies rallying at the capitol every single day last week, including during the vote. Those of us outstate called every friend and relative, urging them to contact their state reps. We called, emailed, spoke up, wrote letters, and sat in the capitol gallery and took over the rotunda. My state Rep said his heart was changed as he had to walk through the people there every day, respectfully and peacefully rallying for human decency (his words.)
The debate was awesome. If it was a scored match, the DFL put on the show of their lives, and spoke so passionately and eloquently for us. The entire debate was also broadcast via Twitter. When it was time to vote, you could hear (on live tv) the voices of people outside the chamber changing “Just VOTE NO” over and over. It took several minutes for all of the reps to cast their votes. When the final vote was tallied and the results known, the chanting continued for some time (they were watching on tv monitors). The chanting turns to shouts and cries. The house sat silent for a moment, and then moved on to the next order of business. They have yet to offer up a balanced budget or education funding. Instead our GOP pushed through this amendment and a Voter ID amendment.