North Carolina blogger Bob Felton often correctly notes that even though the Christofascists love to wrap themselves in the cloak of "family values," conservative Christianity is in fact anything but family friendly. Rather, one is encouraged to put God before all else, family first and foremost, and if one's family gets in the way of this allegiance, then they are to be discarded and shunned. When faced with having a gay son, GOP Senator Rob Portman did the moral thing and embraced his son and did an about turn on gay marriage. Sadly, GOP Rep. Matt Salmon of Arizona - who is Mormon - has chosen the opposite path. While claiming to love and care about his son, he prefers to cling to ignorance and bigotry rather than embrace his son and support gay marriage. I continually am shocked and saddened to see individuals like Salmon prefer to base their moral judgments on the writings and myths of ignorant nomads from the centuries before - individuals who knew less about biology and a host of modern knowledge matters than a typical middle school student. In my view, individuals like Salmon suffer from some sick psychological syndrome if they put ignorance and hate based religious views before their own family members. Pieces in the Washington Post and Think Progress look at Salmon's sickness and failure to be moved by the testimony of his own son. Here are highlights from the Post article:
“I don’t support the gay marriage,” the congressman said. But Salmon emphasized that he loved and respected his son and did not consider homosexuality a choice.
“My son is by far one of the most important people in my life. I love him more than I can say,” an emotional Salmon told 3TV. “It doesn’t mean that I don’t have respect, it doesn’t mean that I don’t sympathize with some of the issues. It just means I haven’t evolved to that stage.”
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) recently endorsed gay marriage, saying his son’s homosexuality inspired him to change his position.
A staunch social conservative, Salmon voted for the Defense of Marriage Act and for a ban on gay adoptions in Washington, D.C. His wife, Nancy Salmon, led the Arizona chapter of the group United Families International during an unsuccessful 2006 fight to ban gay marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships in the state constitution. (A narrower marriage amendment was passed two years later).
“We respect each others’ opinions and we just know that on certain issues we have to agree to disagree,” the congressman’s son, Matt R. Salmon, told The Post. “I love my father and realize that he can have the opinions that he has, and they might differ from mine, but that doesn’t change the way I feel about him.”
In a 2010 interview with the Phoenix New Times, the then-22-year-old revealed that he was dating Kent Flake, the second cousin of Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). In the article both young men, who have since broken up, discussed coming out to their conservative Mormon families.
“The first time I had a conversation with [my father] about it, it did not go well. He was very upset and said some things right off that I know he doesn’t really feel,” Salmon revealed. “He’s never called me any slurs or anything like that, but he made it clear he didn’t like it.”
The younger Salmon said his father came to support his activism even if he didn’t agree with it, a point he emphasized in a 2011 “It Gets Better” video describing his experience with his family, with bullies and with gay “conversion” therapy:
Salmon's son has taken the high road on the issue and I respect him for it. However, as a father of three children myself, I cannot comprehend how any decent and truly loving father can take the stance of Rep. Salmon. He's a hypocrite if he says he loves his son yet clings to the ignorant bullshit peddled by his church. It is simply sick and underscores to me the great evil that is continually caused by religion. The world would be a better place if it were free of religion, especially fundamentalists and ignorance embracing religion.
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