FollowUp 2: Opposition to Day of Silence

A collection of hate groups is protesting today's Day of Silence by asking that students stay home and learn nothing of tolerance of others.

The Day of Silence, which is sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), fast approaches. This year it will take place in most public schools on April 20, 2012. On this day, thousands of public high schools and increasing numbers of middle schools will allow students to remain silent throughout an entire day – even during instructional time – to promote GLSEN's socio-political goals and its controversial, unproven, and destructive theories on the nature and morality of homosexuality.

Parents must actively oppose this hijacking of the classroom for political purposes. Please join the national effort to reclaim a proper understanding of the role, and limits of public education. Help de-politicize the learning environment by calling your child out of school if your child's school allows students and/or teachers to refuse to speak during instructional time on the Day of Silence.

I have never known a teacher, gay or straight, to be silent on the Day of Silence.  When I have a class I still call attendance, give students their lesson and speak with them during any activities.  Those students who choose to do so are encouraged to remain silent but communicate by writing notes to me.

Most schools leave the determination of whether students are required to speak in class on the Day of Silence to the teachers.  So, students may be silent during my classes and must speak during other classes.  As GLSEN and Lambda Legal and the ACLU have made clear, students who are asked to speak during instructional time should do so.  It is only during hallway passing time, lunch, or study halls that students may not be compelled to speak by teachers or administrators.

The goals of GLSEN are only controversial to bigots.  They are common sense and practical to most educators and to all of the major medical and psychological organizations.

The Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network strives to assure that each member of every school community is valued and respected regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.

We believe that such an atmosphere engenders a positive sense of self, which is the basis of educational achievement and personal growth. Since homophobia and heterosexism undermine a healthy school climate, we work to educate teachers, students and the public at large about the damaging effects these forces have on youth and adults alike. We recognize that forces such as racism and sexism have similarly adverse impacts on communities and we support schools in seeking to redress all such inequities.

GLSEN seeks to develop school climates where difference is valued for the positive contribution it makes in creating a more vibrant and diverse community. We welcome any and all individuals as members, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity/expression or occupation, who are committed to seeing this philosophy realized in K-12 schools.

Despite the fears of those opposing the Day of Silence, heterosexual students are encouraged to be straight without any denigration of their majority status.  No bullying of anyone is tolerated, including for religious reasons.  That doesn't stop bigots from being upset.  Here is why they say that they are upset:

One oft-repeated mantra is that the goal of DOS [The Day of Silence] is to keep LGBTQ students safe. The problematic rhetoric of safety,” however, substitutes speciously for the more accurate term of “comfort.” To suggest that in order for those who self-identify as homosexual or “transgender” to be “safe,” no one may disapprove of homosexual conduct is both absurd and dangerous. If this definition of “safety” were to be applied consistently, virtually all statements of disapproval would be prohibited.

No student should be disapproving of fellow students.  Freedom to disapprove of "homosexual conduct" is code for permission to bully.  The argument continues

Day of Silence participants claim they seek to end discrimination. There is, however, a problem with the way “discrimination” is defined in public discourse today. Groups like GLSEN believe that statements of moral conviction with which they disagree constitute prejudice or discrimination. While relentlessly promoting this view, administrators are never asked to provide evidence for the dubious presuppositions on which claims of discrimination are based. They are never asked to provide evidence for the arguable claim that homosexuality is equivalent to race; or that disapproval of homosexual conduct is equivalent to racism; or that homosexual impulses are biologically determined; or that the presence of biological influences in shaping desire renders a behavior automatically moral. The time is long past that parents demand justification for those claims.

Calling out students for being homosexual, bisexual, transvestite, or transgender with religious disapproval has no place in a school.  It is discrimination.  Whether or not sexuality is "equivalent to race", which it is in the sense that both are immutable qualities of each person, discrimination in schools is wrong.  Biological determination versus environmental impact is irrelevant.  Discrimination is wrong.

If we allow schools to define discrimination so expansively as to prohibit all statements of moral conviction, character development is compromised and speech rights are trampled. And if administrators continue to define discrimination in such a way as to preclude only some statements of moral conviction, they violate their pedagogical commitment to intellectual diversity and render the classroom a place of indoctrination.

"Statements of moral conviction" is code for "religious speech".  It belongs in church, not in our schools.  There are limits to freedom of speech, particularly where that speech can lead to violence.  There are too many documented cases of LGBTQ students being physically bullied and too many suicides.  Discrimination masquerading as "statements of moral conviction" must end.

Finally, DOS supporters contend that one of their purposes is to end harassment. What they fail to acknowledge is that the worthy end of eliminating harassment does not justify the means of exploiting instructional time. There are myriad other ways to work toward that end. DOS participants have a First Amendment right to wear t-shirts, or put up posters, or host after-school speakers, or set up tables from which to distribute informative materials. They ought not to be allowed to manipulate instructional time in the service of their socio-political goals.

The claim that instructional time is exploited is debunked by the fact that students may be asked to speak during instructional time, as is clearly stated on the Day of Silence web page.  Claiming otherwise is bearing false witness.

The organizations calling for this walkout (starting a little over halfway down their webpage), a far more extreme curtailment of instructional time, are organizations and a few individuals who are notorious for the anti-gay agenda.  These people who call themselves pro-family are opposed to families that are not in their religious ideal.  Their ideals, when made into laws, harm the children of gay couples, harm consenting adults, and ultimately harm the whole of society in perpetuating a caste system based on fear and hatred.

Running from those with whom you disagree does not solve problems, it reinforces them.  Walking out is a terrible answer.  Their children, those who will grow up to be straight and those who will grow up to be gay, deserve a lot better.

19 March 2012, Original Pedantic Political Ponderings post.

18 April 2012, FollowUp 1.

FollowUp 1: Opposition to Day of Silence

Friday 20 April 2012 is this year's Day of Silence, sponsored by GLSEN.  Why?

The National Day of Silence is a day of action in which students across the country vow to take a form of silence to call attention to the silencing effect of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in schools.

That's the whole of it.  The rest of the details of implementation are not terribly complicated.  Students are directed to follow teachers instructions and speak in class if they are required to do so.

While you DO have a right to participate in the Day of Silence between classes and before and after school, you may NOT have the right to stay silent during instructional time if a teacher requests for you to speak. According to Lambda Legal, "Under the Constitution, public schools must respect students' right to free speech. The right to speak includes the right not to speak, as well as the right to wear buttons or T-shirts expressing support for a cause." However, this right to free speech doesn't extend to classroom time. "If a teacher tells a student to answer a question during class, the student generally doesn't have a constitutional right to refuse to answer." We remind participants that students who talk with their teachers ahead of time are more likely to be able to remain silent during class. Find more Lamda Legal advice here.

But that doesn't slow the lies and bigotry as 20 April approaches.  Here are four recent samples of opposition.

From a letter to the editor in Central Jersey

High school students across the nation (including a few Hunterdon Central High School students) will be celebrating the Day of Dialogue (April 19) that supports marriage between a man and woman (a creation ordinance in Genesis). 

The Day of Dialogue gives students another perspective to the Day of Silence (April 20), which is promoted by GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) and receives a lot of support from high school administrators and faculty. The purpose of the Day of Silence is to promote the homosexual agenda — GLSEN encourages high school students to lobby for legislation supported by homosexual-advocacy groups. GLSEN also encourages the high school students to pressure school officials to promote gay friendly material and events.

It should be noted that the Book of Genesis does discuss creation and procreation but does not establish limits upon who can marry whom.

"Promote the homosexual agenda" in terms of the Day of Silence is opposing bullying.  There is no further agenda for the schools.  "homosexual-advocacy" is a silly phrase.  The LGBTQ Community does advocate for equal treatment under the law for all persons.  As sexuality is generally believed to be immutable, according to major medical and major psychological organizations, advocacy is for how we are treated.  Gay friendly is good.  Human friendly is even better.

Right Wing Watch has an excerpt from a radio dialogue with Truth In Action Ministries' Jerry Newcombe.

It’s something where they are basically taking a legitimate concern, which is that of bullying, and they are using that serious problem that does happen as an opportunity by which they will then promote and essentially indoctrinate children and expose children to the acceptability of the homosexual lifestyle. Now bullying is wrong but so also is indoctrination into a deadly lifestyle and frankly homosexuality is a deadly lifestyle and that fact is withheld from the children.

Again, one cannot be indoctrinated into homosexuality.  Sexuality is immutable.  To put this in terms of religion, all humans are created in God's image and are acceptable.  If you don't like the "homosexual lifestyle" then don't live that way, but neither is there a single type of lifestyle for homosexuals nor is it their business to interfere in the lifestyle of others outside of their church.

The myth that "homosexuality is a deadly lifestyle" originated with debunked studies by Paul Cameron.  I am a healthy gay man in my 50s, unlikely by their rhetoric.  Giving false information to children is a direct defiance of the Bible's admonition against bearing false witness.

Mr. Newcombe continued with an inference that there is a link between Nazis and homosexuality.

It’s sad to see groups like GLSEN be accepted by the teacher's establishment and then allow the platform to go into the public schools and try and indoctrinate children. For example, they have something called the Day of Silence. Now they chose April 20 of all days to be the Day of Silence, I looked that up, I was like, ‘isn’t that Adolf Hitler’s birthday,’ I looked it up and sure enough it is Adolf Hitler’s birthday. I don’t think there’s a link there but how ironic. But they are using this day as a means by which to promote their lifestyle as if it is a positive thing.

It should be noted that the Day of Silence is generally on a Friday in April.  In 2011 it was on 15 April.  The link to Hitler is particularly ugly given the treatment of homosexuals by the Nazis.

Michael Brown, who I have repudiated before, wrote an article a week ago with his complaint.

But don't some schools already have generic, anti-bullying programs in place along with special, daylong events to highlight the destructive effects of bullying, a subject that should concern all of us? Of course they do, but that's not enough. GLSEN insists that a special focus must be put on LGBT kids, as if bullying a gay kid was worse than bullying a fat kid.

To the best of my knowledge there has not be a rash of fat kids committing suicide because of bullying.  It isn't that bullying anyone is worse than bullying someone else, but the problem of bullying LGBTQ students is real and exacerbated by the rants of Mr. Brown.  The attempt to diminish the importance of bullying that is sanctioned implicitly by religious organizations like Mr. Brown's is exactly why the Day of Silence is needed.

But there's more that takes place on the Day of Silence: A pro-homosexuality message is often sent to the students, with teachers and administrators frequently promoting homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgenderism over the course of the day. That's why thousands of schools (and not just students) officially participate in the event, with the explicit backing of GLSEN. What about other messages being introduced during the day to balance the discussion? Perish the thought.

Promoting?  Again, sexuality is immutable.  It is tolerance and acceptance that is encouraged by GLSEN and the Day of Silence.  Balance the discussion?  The balance to a message of not bullying would be what?  A message to bully?  Students who perish as a consequence of bullying is the symptom.  Mr .Brown is part of the problem.

The so-called Liberty Counsel, an organization explicitly connected with the late Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, has a brief complaint about the Day of Silence.

The Day of Silence is not about tolerance or bullying. It is about pushing a sexual agenda. Students and staff who disagree with a radical sexualized agenda are demonized and made to feel like outsiders. Children should be afforded a rigorous education opportunity and not be forced to accept a radical sexualized agenda subsidized with tax dollars. Parents and lawmakers should take the time to learn about the extreme views of GLSEN and the intolerance promoted by the Day of Silence.

There is nothing "sexualized" about the Day of Silence.  This is a fabrication by Matt Staver, the head of Liberty Counsel, who elaborated in an article at One News Now.

The "annual student-led event" is described on the website as one that "brings attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment" in schools. But as schools face enormous pressure from GLSEN to support and promote this event, Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel says administrators, teachers, parents and students should not be intimidated.

"This is not about tolerating any issue or person," he asserts. "It is about a radical and forced agenda of homosexuality that these [days] of silence are promoting, sponsored by the GLSEN organization -- and sometimes under pressure by the schools."

Fear quotes around annual student-led event, implying that others are in the lead, is typical of Mr. Staver's writings.  GLSEN provides materials to students and teachers who request them, it is not pushed from outside.  The idea that homosexuality is somehow forced is completely absurd.  Mr. Staver apparently cannot accept the truth so is making up lies.

The Day of Silence will occur.  As the anti-LGBTQ bigots see that they are slowly losing, that equality for all citizens is becoming a mainstream concept, they can be expected to step up their rhetoric.  The real homosexual agenda, to be allowed to live peaceful lives with equal legal status effectively to be ignored by hate groups like those cited above, is a long way off.  The harassment of students continues and the Day of Silence is necessary.  Perhaps one day it will not be.

19 March 2012, Original Pedantic Political Ponderings post.

20 April 2012, FollowUp 2.

Humor: Day of Silence

I have written previously about opposition to the GLSEN Day of Silence.  This video speaks for, er, has a nice flair for presenting the message.  Nice job by Mr. Brown.  He calls this "cheesy"; and it is, but a little cheesy humor is a good thing.  As he wrote, 20 April 2012 is this year's Day of Silence.

Repudiation: Opposition to Day of Silence

Mission America, created and headed by Linda Harvey, has been spreading Christianity and denouncing homosexuality since 1995.  She has just written a piece titled Why Parents Should Keep Their Children Home from School on the Day of Silence.

On Friday April, 20, 2012, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) is once again exploiting public schools to promote homosexuality and gender confusion as moral and normative through the political protest called the Day of Silence.

The idea of promoting homosexuality or "gender confusion" as if these were somehow contagious is absurd.  Ms. Harvey clearly wants no understanding of the medical and counseling communities views on these matters.  Every major medical and psychological and counseling organization understands that homosexuality and transgender persons are on the spectrum of normal and does not treat either as immoral.

GLSEN has just launched a new Day of Silence website.  In their words, "Founded in 1996, the Day of Silence has become the largest single student-led action towards creating safer schools for all, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression."

A coalition of pro-family groups is urging parents to keep their children home from school on the “Day of Silence,” if your school is allowing students to refuse to speak in class.

Every public school where I have taught has allowed students to make this decision for themselves.  No student is ever coerced into participating.  I have had students tell me that they don't agree with the Day of Silence and will be participating vocally in class.  That is the right of those students.  Rather than stand up respectfully in disagreement, as a few of my students have done, Ms. Harvey is encouraging hiding and closing the minds of students from other ways of thinking.  She is encouraging cowardice.  She wants to make sure that bigoted students aren't contaminated by others who are nice to each other in silence.

GLSEN’s Day of Silence, which began on college campuses and has now infiltrated even middle schools, exploits anti-bullying sentiment to undermine the belief that homosexual acts are immoral.

Whether or not one believes that "homosexual acts are immoral", that does not give one the right to bully those who one thinks are homosexual.  The word "infiltrated" implies some kind of subterfuge.  No, this is not a secret.  It is quite open and apparent.

GLSEN shamelessly exploits teen suicide in order to create a climate of hysteria which they then use to falsely impute culpability for teen suicide to conservative moral beliefs.

The "climate of hysteria" is that which is created by bullies and encouraged by beliefs like those of Mission America.  When one establishes an environment where some children are designated as being in a lower caste, that makes bullying acceptable.  That is the basis for saying that Mission America and hate organizations have culpability in the rash of teen suicides that we have seen.

GLSEN’s end game is the eradication of conservative moral beliefs and the creation of a social and political climate in which it is impossible to express them. Their cultural vehicle of choice for this radical social experiment is public education. What a strategic coup for homosexualists: use our money to capture the hearts and minds of our children.

No.  The end game of GLSEN is the creation of an environment where those with conservative moral beliefs and everyone else can coexist without a caste system, without bullying, and without belittlement of any groups within our schools.  The only expressions that are not welcome in this ideal are those that put down others.  To the best of my knowledge, the Day of Silence is not funded by school or tax dollars.  Materials are paid for by GLSEN, donations to which are tax-deductible under the same IRS code as Mission America.

Efforts to exploit public education for the purpose of eradicating conservative moral beliefs are dramatically increasing every year. Homosexual activists and their allies are aggressively targeting younger and younger children through “anti-bullying” laws, policies, and curricula; through the effort to nationalize “comprehensive sex ed”; through laws mandating positive portrayals of homosexuality and gender deviance in curricula; and through events like the Day of Silence, National Coming Out Day, Ally Week, Transgender Day of Remembrance; and Spirit Week.

"Eradicating conservative moral beliefs"?  That applies to only those that involve hate (which isn't supposed to be part of Christianity according to what I remember from theology classes taught by Jesuit priests).  It is certainly true that anti-bullying policies and curricula are and should be available to all of public school classes and children.  I have written previously about the value and importance of comprehensive sex education.  I have written quite a bit about California's SB-48, the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act which is the law "mandating positive portrayals of homosexuality and gender deviance in curricula".  These and the other GLSEN programs listed are very good for our schools and society.

And conservatives do virtually nothing. Our complacence makes us complicit in the damage done to our children and our culture. 

If that were true, there would be no need for my blog.  Most of what I write is in response to hateful legislation and responses to efforts to move toward equality.  In short, Ms. Harvey is bearing false witness.

Moreover, we teach our children by example to be cowardly conformists. It’s time to resist and there’s no easier way to resist than to call your children out of school on the Day of Silence.

Keeping children and home and hiding from an opportunity for dialogue is cowardly.

Parents and Guardians: Call your children’s middle and high schools and ask if students and/or teachers will be permitted to refuse to speak during class on Friday, April 20, 2012. If your administration allows students and/or teachers to refuse to speak during class, call your child out of school. Every student absence costs school districts money.

As a teacher who firmly believes in the Day of Silence, I have never refrained from speaking on those days and neither has any other gay or straight teacher who I know.  This is entirely the students.  The nature of funding the schools varies from district to district and state to state.  Some district funding is based on every absence.  Other districts do quarterly or annual attendance checks for purposes of funding.  In many schools, Ms. Harvey's suggestion hurts the students pulled out but not the schools, other than in losing opportunities for students to learn.

When administrators refuse to listen to reason and when they allow the classroom to be exploited for political purposes, parents must take action. If they don’t, the politicization of the classroom and curricula will increase.

The Day of Silence is a symbolic gesture to raise awareness of bullying.  How is that not reasonable?  To quote from GLSEN, "GLSEN’s 2009 National School Climate Survey found that nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT students report verbal, sexual or physical harassment at school and more than 30% report missing at least a day of school in the past month out of fear for their personal safety. Moreover, two of the top three reasons students said their peers were most often bullied at school were actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender expression, according to From Teasing to Torment: School Climate in America, a 2005 report by GLSEN and Harris Interactive. Thus, the Day of Silence helps bring us closer to making anti-LGBT bullying, harassment and name-calling unacceptable in America’s schools."  It is about protecting students by creating a more tolerant environment.

If your administrator tells you that they do not permit students or teachers to refuse to speak in class, ask him or her how that is communicated to faculty and students and how it is enforced.

In the schools where I have taught, students have been allowed to put up posters announcing the day in advance.  Teachers have been informed during an staff meeting when this will occur and reminding us that we can require that all students speak in our classes ... that our classroom policy is up to us as long as we remain respectful in implementing it.

The ACLU has issued this statement to students regarding silence in class:

"You DO have a right to participate in Day of Silence and other expressions of your opinion at a public school during non-instructional time: the breaks between classes, before and after the school day, lunchtime, and any other free times during your day. You do NOT have a right to remain silent during class time if a teacher asks you to speak."

Sounds reasonable to me.

The idea that homosexual acts are moral, good, or normative is not a fact. It is an unproven, non-factual, controversial moral belief. As such, no government employee or publicly subsidized institution has the ethical right to teach it to children implicitly or explicitly. It is entirely possible for schools to work toward the important goal of eradicating bullying without affirming homosexuality or gender confusion.

While Ms Harvey is wrong in her first sentence, schools are not teaching anything other than tolerance.  However, here is an important clue regarding "affirming homosexuality or gender confusion."  Homosexuals and transgender persons have been around for millenia.  We are real.  We are part of American society even as we have been part of every other society throughout history (including during biblical times ... that is why we are mentioned in the Bible).  Acceptance of this simple fact by Ms. Harvey would help.

There are a few more repetitive paragraphs.  Rather than me writing more, let's look at a few facts from GLSEN:

The day is a positive educational experience. The Day of Silence is an opportunity for students to work toward improving school climate for all students. GLSEN advises students interested in participating to discuss their intentions with their administration and teachers long before the event. The day is most successful when schools and students work together to show their commitment to ensuring safe schools for all students. Many schools allow students’ participation throughout the day. Some schools ask students to speak as they normally would during class and remain silent during breaks and at lunch. There is no single way to participate, and students are encouraged to take part in the way that is the most positive and uplifting for their school.

Thanks to Joe My God for the heads up.

18 April 2012, FollowUp 1. 

20 April 2012, FollowUp 2.

Repudiation: Liars Defending DOMA

Paul Strand of the Christian Broadcasting Network wrote an article today that brings together a number of the Southern Poverty Law Center's certified hate groups and their lies.

Efforts are underway in nation's capital to wipe out the Defense of Marriage Act -- the federal law that defines marriage the traditional way.

Technically this is not correct, though that would be the effect.  The full text of the proposed legislation does change title 1 and title 28 of the United States Code to remove the discrimination of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).  However, it must be pointed out that "the traditional way" marriage is defined was not what DOMA enshrines until fairly recently.

DOMA also protects states from having to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states and ensures federal benefits only go to married heterosexual couples.

This is correct.

Opponents question why the government is allowed to descriminate (sic) against homosexual couples.

But DOMA supporters say throughout history, governments have found it crucial to promote marriage as between one man and one woman.

Funny that the Bible has frequent passages that record the history of marriage between one man and two or more women.  As I mentioned above, DOMA's definition of marriage is a fairly recent construction.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted Nov. 10 move a bill forward that would get rid of DOMA.

"It really stops a pernicious discrimination," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said.

Supporting lawmakers also blasted those who want to preserve traditional marriage without allowing gay marriage.

"They know they're wrong in their hearts," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said.

Good!

To challenge the fight against traditional marriage, the Family Research Council released a 30-minute DVD titled, "The Problem with Same Sex Marriage."

The video claims that in states like Massachusetts, where gay marriage has been legalized, schools are pushing the homosexual agenda on children through literature and lessons.

"The homosexual agenda" is in fact an agenda of acceptance and tolerance, not pushing sexuality on anyone.  The implied message here is that Massachusetts will work through the schools to make children gay.  This is an absurd notion, but frightening to those who are not aware that medical science proves otherwise.

"Our children are being indoctrinated on same-sex marriage and the rightness, the correctness of homosexuality," Kris Mineau, with the Massachusetts Family Institute, said in the short documentary.

There is no indoctrination.  Homosexuality exists and children are being asked to be tolerant of others who are not like themselves.  Homosexuality is correct for homosexuals as heterosexuality is correct for heterosexuals.  Same-sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts and five other states and the District of Columbia (as well as ten other countries).  No one should ever be coerced into a marriage ... the concept is gross.  If someone does not like same sex marriage, they should not marry someone of the same sex.

"I even put this concern to the chairman at the time of the school committee," added local parent David Parker. "A little girl saying, 'I love my girl friend; I must be gay.' And [the chairman] said, 'David, I have no problem with that whatsoever.'"

Why should the school care whether any child is gay or straight.  The school is not able to make a gay child straight or a straight child gay.  "Efforts to try to force an individual to change his or her orientation are very likely to be unsuccessful and in the end can seriously damage the self-esteem of people who fail."

"'The Little Black Book: Queer in the 21st Century' -- it tells kids how to perform homosexual sex acts," said Brian Camenker, president of MassResistance.org.

This is a booklet that Mass Resistance claimed to have found after a GLSEN meeting in Massachusetts and has used as propaganda every since.  It is a real booklet, largely consisting of warning and guides to how to avoid dangerous situations, but the claim that it had anything to do with Boston schools or GLSEN is a lie.

Leading traditional marriage proponents told CBN News that condemnation is pouring down on their heads.

"It's becoming increasingly clear that the gay rights movement, the gay marriage movement, really does believe you're like a racist if you think marriage is the union of husband and wife," explained Maggie Gallagher, co-founder of the National Organization for Marriage. "They want to rip Genesis out of our Bibles."

No.  A racist is a particular kind of bigot.  Those who favor marriage equality are calling Ms. Gallagher a bit, but not a racist.  And no to the second allegation.  No one seeks to rip Genesis out of the Bible.  This is silliness.  What we want Ms. Gallagher to do is to stop cherry-picking the Bible for the verses that she likes to impose on others while ignoring others that might make her uncomfortable.  She can believe whatever she wants, but is not welcome to use her bigotry to limit my God-given rights.

"But marriage wasn't invented in the 1950s by a bunch of southern fundamentalists or something like that," added Jordan Lorence, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund.

That is correct.  In the Bible we see many marriages.  How many wives did Solomon have again?

"I think many of the 'elites' -- and I've been in many debates with them -- do view this as sort of like they do have a more heightened understanding, a more advanced moral sensibility than 'the masses,' than the 'ignorant masses,'" Lorence explained.

So Mr. Lorence sees this as a war of the elites versus the common man?  Most us are common men.  We are neither superior nor inferior, simply different in sexual orientation.

DOMA supporters say there's a reason governments have continuously favored and promoted traditional marriage.

"Marriage really matters in itself," Gallagher said. "It's the way we teach the next generation that we need to bring together male and female so that children have a mom and dad."

Marriage does really matter.  It matters because it is a fundamental right according to the Supreme Court of the United States in Loving v. Virginia.  It matters because it is a way for a loving couple to extend their commitment to one another.  It matters because children of same sex couples deserve to have all of the protections of marriage.  The fact is that there are a lot of children who have same sex parents and they do just as well as those who have opposite sex parents.

"A child has the best potential for emotional, physical, financial well-being if they're raised by one man and one woman committed in the institution of marriage," added Bishop Joseph Mattera, with the New York Christ Covenant Coalition. "And that's sociological data. We're not even talking about the Bible."

This is simply a lie.  The Bishop is bearing false witness.

"The experience of all these cultures [is] they say, 'We'll just leave people alone, let them do whatever they want when it comes to marriage and sex and children' ... Over time, the men act irresponsibly, they exploit the women, they neglect the children," Lorence explained.

"So the people who run these societies say, 'You know what? We're not going to sustain ourselves as a community if we continue doing this,'" he said.

There is absolutely no evidence of marriage equality leading to irresponsible behavior, exploitation of women, or abandoned children.  Mr. Lorence is delusional.

The FRC documentary pointed out that gay couples raising children are "somewhere from five to 15 times as likely to be homosexual or bisexual as the general population."

These numbers are made up, fictional.  The truth is that children of same sex couples are no more likely than children of opposite sex couples to be homosexual or bisexual.

Gallagher warned society is playing with fire when it condemns those who insist on one man, one woman marriage.

"And to have the government step in and redefine that view as a form of bigotry has immense consequences for every single human being living in a culture," she said.

Bigotry is inherent in those, like Ms. Gallagher, who discriminate, using their made-up "facts" that have no basis in reality as the reason to legislate hatred.  The bigot calls those who notice her bigotry bigots.  Absurd.

There are probably more lies in the CBN article that I did not challenge.  For a religious organization, a group that claims to follow the Ten Commandments, to so blatantly break the 9th Commandment is disgusting.  That they are hurting fellow human beings, their relationships and their children, in the process is despicable.

Thanks to Joe My God and Good As You for the heads up.