Tuesday, June 14, 2005

The Article 8 Road Show

Brian Camenker of the Article 8 Alliance, a group with the stated goal not only fighting marriage equality in Massachusetts but also of removing the judges who decided in favor of it, has taken his show on the road.

[David] Parker and Camenker spoke at the invitation of the Christian Civic League of Maine, which recently launched a "Wake Up, Maine" tour to generate enthusiasm for its people's-veto signature drive and to alert Mainers to what's happened in other states with progressive gay-rights laws.
David Parker, you'll recall, was the Lexington parent who was arrested at his son's school in protest of a book (which depicted a family with two mothers, among many others) that his son brought home one day. Marry in Massachusetts had the best rundown on his saga, back when it first happened in April. The gist of Parker's argument seems to be this: "My child brought home a book that had gay people in it, therefore you should deny any and all partnership rights for homosexual couples in Maine."

It's one thing to be against marriage equality because you honestly believe that marriage is a special institution that should only be between a man and a woman and if same-sex couples want similar rights they should call it something else. That's a position I can respect, if not understand. It's a completely other thing to say that it should be okay to discriminate against homosexuals because your child may one day encounter a homosexual person in real life or in the media.