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Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Maggie Gallagher :: Townhall.com Columnist
Imposing San Francisco Values On First-Graders
by Maggie Gallagher
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Thank God for San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

If, when the dust settles at the ballot box this Nov. 4, California voters definitively repudiate the California Supreme Court's unjust gay marriage ruling by voting Yes on Proposition 8, Mayor Gavin Newsom will be a big part of the reason why.

Even the San Francisco Chronicle acknowledged on Monday that in recent weeks, Mayor Newsom's role in the gay marriage debate "has turned decidedly unheroic."

"He's become everyone's worst nightmare," said Barbara O'Connor, a professor of political communications at Sacramento State University

Gay marriage is coming "whether you like it or not," Mayor Newsom intones in news clips featured in the first round of Yes-on-Proposition-8 ads, looking unbearably smug and arrogant in dictating the future of marriage for the rest of California from his San Francisco perch. (See the ads for yourself at www.protectmarriage.com.)

Public opinion polls showed a dramatic surge in support for Prop 8 after these Yes-on-Propostion-8 ads featuring Newsom hit the airwaves. Faced with a dramatic drop in public support once the real potential consequences of gay marriage for parents, public schools, church groups and others are highlighted, gay marriage advocates have responded with a rebuttal ad. (See it at www.noonprop8.com.)

Their allegedly pro-gay marriage message? Labeling the concerns that public schools will teach about gay marriage, if we permit gay marriage to remain the law of the land, as just "lies!"

Right. What do gay marriage advocates think public schools should teach about marriage if gay marriage is the law of the land? Could we have a reasonably honest discussion please about what you have in store for California's first-graders?

Instead of standing their ground and defending their moral views, gay marriage advocates are simply pretending to voters that legalizing gay marriage won't affect anyone else at all.

Marriage is a publicly affirmed status -- a shared social ideal -- not just a private act. When the government says gay unions are the ideal -- exactly the same as husband and wife -- a whole lot of people who disagree are going to find life gets a whole lot harder, especially when it comes to raising our children.

So what does Mayor Newsom, the poster boy for arrogance among gay marriage advocates, do in the middle of this campaign to deceive California voters about the real consequences of gay marriage?

Why, he presides over a lesbian teacher's wedding ceremony at City Hall, to which public school children are bused, at taxpayer expense, during school hours. (Newsom claims he wasn't aware of that fact when he agreed to preside.) Continued...

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About The Author

Maggie Gallagher is a nationally syndicated columnist, a leading voice in the new marriage movement and co-author of The Case for Marriage: Why Married People Are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially.

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What's your problem?
Since the first graders and their parents are San Franciscans, what values should they be raised with?

Where conservatives should be on prop 69
I'm going to assume that the TH readers who weighed in against "Prop. 69" are either libertarians or liberals, but not genuine conservatives. Genuine conservatives should have no problem with legislating Biblical morality. All of the arguments against such legislation came originally from the liberal playbook anyway.

American conservatism is essentially religious conservatism. Consider the following definition of conservatism from "American Conservatism
An Encyclopedia" ISI, 2000. [For those of you who don't know--although you should--ISI is the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a conservative educational organization founded in 1953.

Here's the definition, found on p. 180: "Conservatism is a philosophy that seeks to maintain and enrich societies charactrerized by respect for inherited institutions, beliefs and practices, in which individuals develop good character by cooperating with one another in primary, local associations such as families, churches and social groups aimed at furthering the common good in a manner pleasing to God."
In the Bible God makes his views on gays quite clear--or so you religious authorities on the Right tell me--so what is "pleasing to God" just happens to coincide with the conservative agenda.
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