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Thursday, December 04, 2008
Mario Diaz :: Townhall.com Columnist
The Politics of Safety
by Mario Diaz
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Will the Dems' health care Christmas Present to America be an improvement or detriment to our health care system?


It turns out the “tolerance” movement might not be as tolerant as advertised.

In a 1995 speech entitled “Winning the Culture War,” Kevin Jennings, founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) said,

In Massachusetts the effective reframing of this issue was the key to the success of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth. We immediately seized upon the opponent's calling card — safety — and explained how homophobia represents a threat to students' safety by creating a climate where violence, name-calling, health problems, and suicide are common. Titling our report 'Making Schools Safe for Gay and Lesbian Youth,' we automatically threw our opponents onto the defensive and stole their best line of attack. This framing short-circuited their arguments and left them back-pedaling from day one.

For homosexual activists, the illusion of danger and the need for safety was all part of a strategy, the means to an end, a façade. Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen made it clear in their 1989 treatise After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90’s: “in any campaign to win over the public, gays must be portrayed as victims in need of protection so that straights will be inclined by reflex to adopt the role of protector. ... The purpose of victim imagery is to make straights feel very uncomfortable.”

It worked. Homosexuals gained enormous sympathy from Americans by portraying themselves as victims and calling on the government to enact laws to “protect” them. They called for laws to specifically protect “gay” youth from being bullied (thus erecting the illusion of masses of homosexual youth who needed more protection than any other bullied child) and politicians stayed silent for fears of being called “insensitive” or “intolerant.”

But it turns out that, in certain circumstances, bullying is good after all. For example, if you are a Christian and voted for Proposition 8 to preserve the historic definition of marriage, some homosexuals think you should be bullied.

“Trust me. I've got a big list of names of [M]ormons and [C]atholics that were big supporters of Prop 8. … I warn them to watch their backs,” said a homosexual activist, mad about the result of Proposition 8, in a blog post. “If you're planning a heterosexual wedding in California … be prepared for picketers. Designate someone to watch the parking lot … You’re going to have lots of unexpected expenses. Add $500 to your budget for security,” warned another.

They did not stop at warnings either. Many saw the reports from Palm Springs, California where homosexual activists attacked an elderly woman carrying a cross. At Saddleback Church, several hundred homosexual activists intimidated parishioners with menacing chants and a large swastika display. A Catholic church in Riverside, California, found Proposition 8-related signs arranged in a swastika on the church's front lawn. In Lansing, Michigan, homosexual activists vandalized an Assembly of God church and threw pro-“gay” items and condoms in the sanctuary, while two lesbians kissed each other at the podium among chants of “Jesus is a homo." And several thousand homosexual activists marched at a Mormon temple in the Los Angeles-area threatening to break through the gates and storm the building. And these are just a few of the reports.

Who needs protection now?

But the truth is out. Homosexual activists are not fighting for their “safety.” Nor are they fighting for their “rights.” The California Supreme Court recognized in its now-infamous same-sex “marriage” decision that homosexual couples already possess the legal rights and responsibilities afforded to heterosexual couples through California's civil union law; Proposition 8 did not change that. The reality is that homosexual activists are bent on the open promotion and celebration of homosexuality in America — even at the expense of our safety. They do not permit anyone to object, no matter how reasonable, thoughtful or kindly they do so. They simply will not permit religious people to express their faith – not at the ballot box and not even in their own houses of worship.

Remember when all they wanted was the “right to visit their partner in the hospital” (a false claim in and of itself because patients already have the right to designate who can visit them)? But still, those days — and the false tears — are long gone. Today, they storm churches, bullying people into denying their sincerely held religious beliefs about marriage, while trampling our religious liberties and our form of government.

In lawsuits challenging Proposition 8, homosexual activists ask the Supreme Court to violate legal precedent and ignore the state and federal constitutions to invalidate the marriage amendment. In effect, they are asking the Court to nullify the sovereign right of the people to self-govern.

But remember, this is all in the name of “tolerance and safety.” A small price to pay, right?

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About The Author

Mario Diaz is the Policy Director for Legal Issues at Concerned Women for America.

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David's observation & Old Tom

I agree with David's points with one minor exception: he wrote that "the constitution... provides you with innumerable rights." Well, no the Constitution protects us from the encroachment of government upon "natural rights" -- and, as David astutely observed, prevents will of the majority from trampling on the rights of the minority. Or at least, this is what the our system SHOULD do.


Old Tom-- get a grip. You're entitled to your opinion, but an ad hominem attack accusing one poster of endangering the lives of others crosses the line. Unless of course you were seeking to provide us with an object lesson in offensive verbiage that cannot help but weaken your argument. If so, job well done.

David
I feel so sorry for you, your misguided views and the lifestyle you've CHOSEN.
I can not and WILL NOT accept the lifestyle that you've chosen nor do I appreciate the "in your face" method that you and others of your kind use to attempt acceptance.
Yes you do have certain rights but the additional recognision that you and yours required are such that most will hopefully never grant.
I can only say that if we should ever do so, we are doomed to failure and moral decline.
It's your lifestyle as you've CHOSEN and you're welcome to live it as long as it does not endanger or insult others and we of the REAL world who are entitled to ours.
Don't try to change the moral and social values of this country to suit your way of living.
You've already endangered the health of many as it is, read AIDS.

For the Record
Having been the victim of crimes (I have been assualted, threatened with both physical and sexual assualt, had both my car and home vandalized, and been fired from jobs) perpetrated against me because I am a lesbian, I can tell you that safety, or at least the feeling of safety, is honestly one of the major reasons why general acceptance of homosexuals as human beings who do not deserve to be abused is essential.

That being said, the behavior of those activitist in California is appalling. I do not believe in using the courts to force gay marriage thorugh the legal system--I believe that the acceptance of gay marriage is inevitable since most of the generation coming of age now doesn't care about who's gay and whose straight, within my lifetime it will simply become a non-issue. In the interim, we make do with civil unions and whatever other legal hoops we have to jump through to gaurentee that our lives and deaths are run the way we wish them to be.

Even worse is the violence that has followed their defeat in the election. Expressions of disappointment and threatened boycotts of businesses are perfectly within freedom of speach protections and are typical of losing sides of emotionally charged social issues. However, threats, assualts, and tresspassing are unacceptable and should be treated as such both in the legal courts and the court of public opinion. Disappointment and frustration are no exucse to behave in uncivilized fashions and give all the rest of us a bad name.

Media Blackouts
Isn't it ironic that the old establishment media seem to be doing very little reporting of these events?

Gay Arguments
David, so the way gays get equal rights is by assaulting old ladies and violating the freedom of others to practice their religion? In truth, gays have the same protections that heterosexuals do. They simply want to redefine "marriage" to include relationships they engage in. They would not, I'm sure, include other types of relationships as "marriage", such as best friends, roommates, pastors, cohabiting, polygamy, incest, or pedophilia. Why not? What moral prerogative makes a gay relationship a marriage and these others not? Gays may choose not to participate in heterosexual unions. Priests and nuns also take this option.

oldsocialworker, I agree with your points, and here is an example of the slippery slope. Soon, we will decide overweight girls are biologically predisposed to their condition (it isn't a lifestyle choice), they will form a movement, and will lobby for protection

Thanks Mr. Diaz
Nothing like liberal tolerance! Also, so much for the voice of the people.

And so it goes ...
"It should be plainly obvious to anyone who is even slightly intellectually honest that the goal of the homosexual activist movement is nothing short of MORAL APPROVAL of their lifestyle."

Utter nonsense. We want equal protection under the law - nothing more and nothing less. You are free to believe the pseudo science that sexual orientation is a choice. You are equally free to believe that being gay is a sin. You are free to believe that being gay is a "lifestyle" which erroneously concludes that gay people are defined by their sexual orientation.

I don't seek, care about nor expect your approval. Again, I want equal protection under the law.

David Hart
http://www.tips-Q.com

More Nonsense
"In lawsuits challenging Proposition 8, homosexual activists ask the Supreme Court to violate legal precedent and ignore the state and federal constitutions to invalidate the marriage amendment. In effect, they are asking the Court to nullify the sovereign right of the people to self-govern. "

Untrue. The only issue before the Court is whether or not Proposition 8 constitutes a constitutional amendment or a constitutional revision. If, in fact, it is a revision then it is subject to super majority legislative approval.

This "will of the people" argument is inapplicable. The judiciary is charged with preventing the tyranny of the majority over a minority. THAT is the essence of the constitution. That is what provides you with innumerable rights - at least those that George hasn't shredded.

"Tolerance": a one-way street.
It should be plainly obvious to anyone who is even slightly intellectually honest that the goal of the homosexual activist movement is nothing short of MORAL APPROVAL of their lifestyle.
Absolutely NO criticism of their choice is to be heard from ANYONE.
OTOH, The "gay" folks have found full rights to enter houses of worship and perform whatever acts they see fit, as well as intimidating the congregants.
There IS a point where the good folks on the right (as opposed to wrong, NOT the political pole) side of the issue are going to say "No more".
If they are TRULY the majority of the country as the polls depict, events such as Prop. 8 in "Kalifornia" will be the LEAST of the concerns for the other side.
Bob

Where are the safeguards
for churches that have been granted to abortion clinics? More hypocrisy.

safe to say
It seems safe to say that at this point there have been more columns trying to manufacture the nonsense that Christians are the victims of the proposition 8 debate than there were incidents on which these misleading columns could be written.

On the other hand one has to give Diaz credit. He begins his column by explaining how portraying oneself as a victim can be manipulative nonsense. And he ends his column by portraying the people who want to interfere in the lives of gay families as victims, showing that there was some truth to at least the principle in the first half of the column.

BARBARA WALTERS GOT NOTHING ON US
We have details on the Bill and Barack’s fight for the title of FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT. We have comments form OPRAH, JOHN TRAVOLTA, JOHN KERRY, REV. WRIGHT, REV. JESSE JACKSON, CHICAGO'S MAYOR DALEY and more. Read about it at, : http://stopthepresses2.blogspot.com

Patrick
The best thing at this point is to leave the Obama presidency alone. I do not favor Obama, but favor riots and malignant social discord even less.

Hetero kids accept gays and lesbians
What they don't accept is flambouyant, "in your face" behaviors. I work in a large, semi-urban (not quite suburban, not quite urban) high school with "at-risk" teens, so I have a pretty good sample to observe.

In my school, gays are entirely accepted; and gay guys are often the preferred friends of girls. In my experience, it is black gay guys who face the most hostility within their communities.

In our student body, it is overweight girls who face astounding hostility and bullying by students of all races and ethnicities. Overweight girls definitely have a legitimate, grand-scale complaint of discrimination and public abuse.

Barack bully ways may come to an end
Monday the United States could become the laughing stock of the world, if the United States Supreme Court rule there is cause to prevent Obama from being administered the oath of office. Democrats ignored the possibility but the United States Supreme Court are obligated by the United States Constitution To certify the eligibility of the president-elect it is normaly a non-issue. On monday this will not be the case, first because the information which usually arrive prior to elections are forgone conclusions. This year there is an appearance of evidence which might confirm Barack Obama birth place was in Kenya and not Hawaii.

A bully is a bully, no matter the fake
tears.

The truth is out. Great column.

Where are the elected leaders of the great state of California (my former home)? Where is the Governor? I know where Jerry Brown is. Why aren't they using the bully pulpit to respect law abiding citizens who exercised their right to use a secret ballot to make a simple, legal definition of marriage? They were not disolving domestic partnerships not diminishing the civil rights of gay individuals or couples.

Small actions by concerned citizens can restore the civil disobedience that borders on lawlessness in the Golden State. We can all stand up without copying the methods and harrassment of the anti Prop 8 activists. It really doesn't take a lot of courage to stand up to bullies!
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