Fear the Rainbow!

A perusal of the morning news seems to indicate that the Christianists fear campaign against LGBT equality may be backfiring at least to some extent. From Rachel Madow playing the audition tapes on her show last night for the actors in the incredibly untruthful National Organization for Marriage video, to sharp questioning on talk shows, to scathing editorials one can only hope that average Americans will begin to get the message that our enemies are paranoid liars and not necessarily dealing with full decks in terms of mental stability. With all the many severe problems in the world and children literally starving to death and dying of treatable illnesses every day, gay marriage is the most pressing disaster facing the nation and the world? I think not. Mark Morford has a great column in the San Francisco Chronicle that takes the Christianists to task with his usual great satire. Here are some highlights:

*

My favorite part has got to be the lightning. The fake lightning, that is, flashing just off to the side, a cheap 'n' cheesy special effect that momentarily lights up the actors' faces in the most sweetly melodramatic way as they stand there against the dark 'n' stormy backdrop like devout Christian zombies, delivering delightfully weird and wooden lines about being openly terrified of those openly terrifying gay married people.

*

Yes, it's merely another series of strange, alarmist, deeply homophobic ads from yet another seething anti-gay group you've never heard of (the National Organization for Marriage, or NOM), ads which are running right now in five states in response to two stunning, watershed gay marriage upheavals in Iowa and Vermont, AKA two more states now shamelessly roaring down the highway to hell.

*

You just gotta see these strange, hateful little ads (as of this writing, the unintentionally hilarious audition reels of the terrible actors reciting the fake lines have been, alas, taken down). The ads emphasize how the gays are moving closer to Christian homes, businesses, schools and genitalia, and many terrified citizens with souls the size of marbles clearly don't know what to do or how to protect their children -- or their crotches -- from the onslaught because, oh my God, I think I just saw two men kissing on the mouth! Help me, Jesus!

*

What's most striking, what sets these ads apart from most homophobic campaigns of the past, is the palpable tone of desperation. It's a feeling that these groups are, more and more, clutching at straws, scraping bottom, leaning on the most absurd, least tenable arguments imaginable, each one more shrill and desperate than the last in a losing effort to appeal to an ever-shrinking audience of increasingly indifferent, bored homophobes.