Boil a frog slowly and it fails to appreciate its own peril.
National Organization for Marriage (AKA National Organization Opposed to Marriage Equality) is in a state of utter confusion over New York State politics. As a New Yorker myself, Republican party affiliation is usually not the proforma association with the Christian right. Our last Republican governor, George Pataki, was pro-choice and an advocate for gay rights. Even conservative, former state senate majority leader Joe Bruno is in favor of same-sex marriage. These days, according to NOM, everything is Tim Gill’s fault.(emphasis added): New York’s 23rd Congressional district has a special election. NY 23 is what Manhattanites would think of as “way upstate NY”–the northeastern corner. The sitting Congressman, John McHugh, is a Republican whom Obama just named to be Secretary of the Army. We are talking solid GOP territory. But for some reason (a deal with Tim Gill) some New York Republican leaders decided that out of all the people they could choose to carry the GOP flag, they would pick Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, one of the very, very few Republicans who have ever actually voted for gay marriage. (Oh, and she’s pro-abortion too, naturally.) This makes the New York Daily News describe her as a “moderate” Republican. But really, is “moderate” the word for a GOP politician who passionately advocates for gay marriage as a “civil right” (Fight back by donating to NOM’s New York PAC!) Eventually, we get to Tim Hortons: [Gay activists] organized a boycott against a company that donated a few hundred cups of coffee to the event. All Canadian media was agog! Give coffee to bigots!! (Translation: by “bigot” they mean people like you and me and the majority of Americans, who support and promote marriage as a union of husband and wife.) On the one hand this kind of thing is small potatoes, more bemusing than outraging. I mean, just Google “Chris Plante”–our capable NOM Rhode Island executive director–and see all the news headlines from Vancouver to London. It’s a little silly really. Then again, here’s what I keep wondering: What kind of movement would threaten to hurt people’s jobs for a few cups of coffee donated to an event to celebrate traditional marriage Extensive and repeated polling agrees that the single most effective message is:
“Gays and Lesbians have a right to live as they choose, they don