Sunday, February 20, 2011

Daily Kos Indictment of Maggie Gallagher

As I suspect regular readers have figured out, I view Maggie Gallagher (and others like her) who is making a fortune for herself marketing and disseminating anti-gay hatred as worse than a whore. Prostitutes are involved in victimless crimes whereas there are many victims of Gallagher's message of hate. Indeed, in my view she's an accessory to every gay teen suicide and every act of violence against LGBT citizens. Gallagher is a major player in keeping homophobia alive by giving it a color of legitimacy and a major player in the effort to keep LGBT Americans second class citizen. I believe God - if there is one - will have a special reserved seat for Gallagher in Hell. The Daily Kos has a great taken down of Gallagher in the context of her anti-gay activities in New Hampshire - a state where a considerably majority of voters do not want to repeal same sex marriage. The piece is aptly captions "The Cold Heart of a Craven, Careless, Professional, Paid Propagandist." Here are some highlights:
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Maggie Gallagher, front woman for National Organization for Marriage, trying desperately to spin the disastrous showing marriage equality opponents had at Thursday's legislative hearing in New Hampshire, posted an interesting talking point she seemed to think had value to her organization's blog.
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She's suggesting lawmakers ignore the will of the people. Ignore the WMUR/Granite State poll, that show 62% of New Hampshire residents have no desire to see this repealed in favor of the 29% who do. University of New Hampshire pollster Andrew Smith, who directs the UNH Survey Center, called it more than opposition but rather "powerful resistance."
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If the will to repeal exists in the the Granite State, there was scarce evidence of it Thursday. But hundreds and hundreds of people did take the time out of their day to come and testify, to plead, demand and argue their case before the lawmakers. "But ignore all that," says Maggie, because "they'll all get over it."
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[T]he broken hearts of gay people and their families are of no consequence to Mrs. Gallagher. . . . Note she says: "It is not discrimination to treat different things, differently." The subject on the table is not the sorting of one "thing" from another. The sorting is that of people. And treating different people differently is a pretty good working description of "discrimination" as we understand it.
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This is where we see what a cold and heartless person she is at her very core. Maggie views gays not as people, but mere "things." The dehumanization of gay people is time-honored tactic of the anti-gay crowd that makes up the base of Maggie's support.
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Looking very closely at the underbelly of Maggie's supporters is, in fact, recommended. Maryland State Senator James Brochin, who previously opposed marriage equality took in Maggie and her supporter's testimony and said: “What I witnessed from the opponents of the bill was appalling. Witness after witness demonized homosexuals, vilified the gay community, and described gays and lesbians as pedophiles. I believe that sexual orientation is not a choice, but rather people are born one way or another. The proponents of the bill were straightforward in wanting to be simply treated as everyone else, and wanted to stop being treated as second-class citizens.
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This is more than a tactic to this mob--without whom NOM would cease to exist--it is a firmly held world view. Gays are not humans, but monsters, who molest children and live lives of depravity and disease, and we'd all be better off if they were jailed, or executed.
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The expression of these world views have been documented extensively by the Southern Poverty Law Center. And NOM's gleeful distribution of lies and slander about LGBT Americans earned them a spot on SPLC's list of 18 Anti-Gay Groups and Their Propaganda.
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Maggie draws a good paycheck from National Organization for Marriage's multi-million dollar war chest, swooping from state to state testifying against the equal protection of LGBT Americans. She can never provide a compelling reason why this is such an imperative, beyond "it's always been this way." Which at one point, was a pretty compelling argument to deny women voting rights, or African Americans their basic freedom. Or, ironically, her right to marry her Hindu-practicing East Indian husband.
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One can summarize Maggie Gallagher quite easily: she's the face of the Christian Taliban that will not be happy until freedom of religion is reserved only for hate filled "Christians" such as herself. One would think that the example of the Taliban in Afghanistan would have demonstrated the dangers of people like Gallagher and organizations like NOM. Yet time and time again, the media gives them a free pass and allows them to spill slanderous hate towards other citizens never once calling out their hypocrisy.

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