Anita Bryant Version 2.0

Remember this? Many readers may, but still more, like me, were simply to young at time to know Anita Bryant. At the time, she was THE spokesperson for religious intolerance...kind of like Maggie Gallagher and Carrie Prejean all rolled into one. Ms. Bryant practiced the same tactics that are still being used against us today. Notice the way she automatically feigns taking the high road in order to appear the victim of a "vicious homosexual", allowing the man to stay to witness their obvious moral superiority. The look that man shot Anita as she prayed spoke volumes more about the terrible impact her words had on the lives of gay men and women than a million angry blogposts could ever communicate. That man stayed, not out of shame for his actions, but to let her know that he was not intimidated by her pretense of holiness.

How far we have come since then, right?...well....

Welcome to Anita Bryant version 2.0 in the person of Maggie Gallagher. Watch this response to Maine's passing of question 1 and tell me if you see any difference in her message, or impact, than Anita Bryant's. Also, consider the fact that this woman just helped crush the dreams of thousands of Maine's gay couples and their families, then felt the need to go gloat on the net.



I don't want to put Mags up here at all. Even doing that, is giving her far more attention and publicity than I care to. Ms. Gallagher used her position in the National Organization for Marriage and her connections to the Catholic Church to help pass Prop 8 in California, Question 1 in Maine, and that will not be all. One thing that Maggie and Anita Bryant have in common is using the Idea that religion and popular opinion are enough to support their actions and they are only acting as innocent agents of those factors. Anytime someone calls these individuals on the basic negativity of their actions they respond with feigned victim hood. An example of this is Maggie Gallagher's recent attendance of a pro-gay marriage rally reported, recently, on www.pamshouseblend.com She claims to have been in that location by some huge coincidence...yeah right, sure she was. What she really hoped for was a pie in the face just like Anita Bryant's. Martyrdom was her agenda here. Then she could go back to the news media and decry our intolerance of their religious view....to make US look like the bad guys. But no one accosted Ms. Gallagher. Sorry Mags...they saw through ya that time.

Ms. Gallaghers words from the video above:

There is an increasing discussion of the implications of this victory.

Yeah...like once your done with the gays...whose rights are you going to assault next? And just how easy will it be to do it to another group having already laid the groundwork for removing civil rights with us...the gays.

gay marriage advocates are stunned, hurt, upset...

Yes...and you are clearly broken up about that.

...in Maine they had a three year head start. They built an extensive..put millions into building an extensive grass roots organization. Maine is a socially liberal state. Its a blue state...a democratic state. They have the entire political establishment on their side, the Governor, the Attorney General, the head of schools...They Had the chance to learn from the failure of Prop 8 in California. They ran the kind of ads the kind of ads that critics said would have won in California, including those featuring nice gay families and quick rebuttal ads to the charges that the Yes On 1 campaign featured, that gay marriage will be taught in schools and might effect religious liberty....and yet they woke up Wednesday morning to realise, the with all of these advantages...including a two to one financing margin...

Yes Mags...up to this point everything you've said here is true EXCEPT...your organization was not the David to our Goliath. Your side had the advantage of first being able to call a vote on the civil liberties of your fellow Americans... one point to you. Secondly your side was financed by the huge coffers of the Catholic Church among other large donors. Then...with these two advantages on YOUR side, you ran a campaign based on lies and fear tactics. You deceived the voters of Maine and they believed you. Now they must consider if they are any better off for having done so.

The people of Maine had once AGAIN, like the people of every other state where Americans have voted, decisively rejected gay marriage and by an even larger margin than in California. 53% to 47%...

Two points more than California does not count as a significantly larger margin than California's 51%. And while you would like to play this little factoid down....I'll take 47% approval...its light years more than we had ten years ago ...and will only get larger.

And I can not make this point enough. Just because you and others like you love to crow about how the "people have spoken". The people had no right to VOTE on my rights to begin with. I pay the same taxes you do but yet my family is not accorded the rights yours is. This is a basic breach of our nations Constitution and voting on this issue does not sanitize it. Sorry

This victory in Maine interrupts the cultural narrative that was being manufactured that somehow American opinion has shifted on the gay marriage issue and instead it makes it clear...if they can not win in Maine, they can not win anywhere. That the American people really, simply, are not on board with this "gay marriage thing"...

Whoa there Axis Sally ...slow down.

Your organization... The National Organization for Marriage...and YOU Ms Gallagher, ran a political campaign based on lies about homosexuality being taught in schools and the phantom menace of the loss of religious freedom. You put forward dishonest spokespeople like Charla Bansley, a private christian school teacher and implied that she was a public school teacher. You put forward the Wirthilins AGAIN...even though they have been completely debunked.

So tell me Ms. Gallagher...who is manufacturing what narrative. Because it looks to me like you are throwing stones from a very fragile glass house.

American opinion has shifted on the "gay marriage thing" a considerable amount, Maybe not enough for Americans to be able to see the obvious civil violations taking place but we are far better off than we were even ten years ago.

So, Hanoi Hanna...before you make your claims that "they can not win anywhere". You may want to consider to whom you are speaking. Gay men and women have been vilified and discriminated against since long before you or I were born. We know how to persevere. We will not stop trying. Not my generation or the ones that will follow it or the ones after that because our people come right out of your people. Maybe one day you will understand that there is only one "people" and we can stop this nonsense.

But the bottom line is, after the victory in Maine, gay marriage advocates are discouraged and marriage advocates are energized and are LOOKING FOR AN OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN OTHER STATES ON THE MARRIAGE ISSUE.

Ah Yes...your much talked about "culture war". This one statement alone lets us know just who IS pushing an agenda here...YOU. We are sad. We are angry....but we are NOT giving up and the more you repeat your playbook of lies and misinformation, the more Americans see through it for the religious, homophobic bullying that it is. We are watching you...what you do...not what you say. And we know you will not stop at marriage. We know you want to remove ALL our rights one at a time.

So Go ahead and be smug. Smirk at the loss of civil rights you have helped bring about as you did @1:32 here in this video. Count us out Maggie Gallagher, consider us defeated...broken. But do so at your own peril because you may just put that pie in your own face this time...we will not give you that satisfaction, nor will we stand down.