11/29/2007
Anti-Gay Marriage Attack Launched in New Jersey
Right-wing religious groups the National Organization for Marriage and the N.J. Family Policy Council have launched a hard-hitting campaign in New Jersey to try "to block an effort to legalize same-sex marriage during the lame-duck session of the Legislature that ends Jan. 8, when new lawmakers are sworn," according to the New Jersey Star-Ledger:
"Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) yesterday said no vote on same-sex marriage will be taken during lame duck, but those who fear it had succeeded in tying up his phone lines. 'At this point, they're just wasting their money with the phone calls. Somebody's giving them bad information,' Codey said. 'It's jamming our phone lines and we can't do our work here.' He said his office got as many as 200 calls per hour. Corzine's office got 133 calls yesterday while Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) got about 200, according to their press secretaries. Brigid Harrison, a professor of political science and law at Montclair State University, said the anti-gay marriage campaign may be aimed not just at lawmakers, but at voters casting their ballots in the presidential primary on Feb. 5."
NOM has begun airing a hideous attack ad as well, on New Jersey radio stations. I've transcribed it below.
**BEGIN TRANSCRIPT**
VOICE: "If we change the definition of marriage..."
LITTLE GIRL: " Grandma, my teacher said if Grandpa was a girl, that's okay. You can still be married!
VOICE: "...our kids will be taught a new way of thinking."
LITTLE GIRL: "God creating Adam and Eve? That was so old fashioned."
VOICE: "And soon, they'll be thinking the unthinkable."
LITTLE BOY: "If my dad married a man, who would be my mom?"
VOICE: "Powerful special interest groups want to redefine marriage in New Jersey. They want your tax dollars to teach your kids and grandkids that your idea of marriage is just bigoted. They also want to penalize traditional New Jersey churches with threats to state tax exemptions and adoption licenses. And they don't want you to have a chance to vote. These are the same NJ politicians that can't cut taxes, end corruption, or pay for pension promises....But they have time to mess with gay marriage? Visit NationforMarriage.org and send a clear message. NO on gay marriage. And let the people decide. Please, do it right away. That's nationformarriage.org."
LITTLE GIRL: "I want a mommy and a daddy!"
**END TRANSCRIPT**
Listen to it here.
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Posted 10:50 AM EST by Andy in Gay Marriage, New Jersey, News | Permalink
Comments
God, that makes me sick. I'm from New Jersey, so it's doubly sickening. What the hell are they afraid of?!
Posted by: Rhea | Nov 29, 2007 11:20:24 AM
Wow. That is so out there that it sounds like a parody of itself. Except that it's real. Scary.
Posted by: Gregg | Nov 29, 2007 11:44:17 AM
They're preaching to the choir. Anyone who isn't completely decided on the issue already will probably find the ad just as disgusting and shamelessly manipulative as we do.
Posted by: Wes | Nov 29, 2007 12:08:21 PM
She can speak for herself, the little dear. Personally I would have loved two mommies.
But yes, it's not news that there are some children - like some conservative homophobes - who seem to require constant reassurance that the world was made in their own image and no one else's.
Also, a child - no matter how precocious -is probably not the best judge of the complexity and variousness of actual human existence.
Posted by: FASTLAD | Nov 29, 2007 12:43:28 PM
It would help if everyone stopped using the term "gay marriage" and replaced it with "marriage equality."
Thanks.
Posted by: Tom | Nov 29, 2007 12:46:46 PM
This ad is so asinine, that it just might have the reverse affect of it's intended purpose.
Posted by: soulbrotha | Nov 29, 2007 1:13:15 PM
God made Adam and Eve? The same Adam and Eve that the Bible says lived to be 1,000 years old.
Adam and Eve are fictional characters. I think there's a lot of Americans that need a wake up call regarding the "truth" of the Bible.
Posted by: 1♥ | Nov 29, 2007 2:06:57 PM
They couldn't even be bothered to come up with their own damn ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5EAsDITBo8
It's worth a re-mention here: in Wisconsin (where the above ad aired last year), Fair Wisconsin, which advocated for voting against the amendment, spent several million dollars on a slick ad campaign, canvassing, etc. Vote Yes for Marriage paid less than a quarter of a million dollars to air that one ad a few times in a few markets and won 59-41.
Posted by: Thor | Nov 29, 2007 2:38:35 PM
Gee, I wonder what NJ single parents think of this little girl wanting a mommy AND daddy. You'd think the little tyke would rather have two parents instead of - gasp! -just one.
Posted by: jeffy | Nov 29, 2007 2:41:22 PM
I expect they'll call for a ban on divorce next. To be consistent, I mean.
:-)
Posted by: FASTLAD | Nov 29, 2007 5:10:58 PM
Yes, preaching to the choir as was pointed out earlier pretty much sums this up.
But, to be sure, civil unions and marriage are inherently different, with good, sound reason.
Posted by: Cramps | Nov 30, 2007 6:42:44 AM
The Bible quote should be a serious wake up call as to how this is one group trying to impose its religious beliefs on an unwilling smaller second group. Our inalienable right to pursuit of happiness is at stake.
The only way to protect ourselves from attack ads like these is to personally get involved. Knowthyneighbor.org was launched in Massachusetts back in 2005 when bigots wanted to take marriage equality away from the only state that currently has it. Through a series of rallies, articles, and direct legislative lobbying, we won the vote 151-45. The same can be true in New Jersey if people stand up for what they believe in. Remember that in the absence of your own voice people will here whomever is speaking.
Posted by: John Hosty-Grinnell | Dec 1, 2007 8:27:35 AM
Big leader of the free world. Haaaaaaaaaaa!
It sound like Taliban politics to me.
The EU, Australia, New Zealand, Isreal, South Africa, parts of Mexico, Argentina, Brasil, now Uruguay have (at least!) civil unions... none of these countries is falling morally, fiscally, politically, socially... apart.
People are finally more equal...
Posted by: Martin | Dec 1, 2007 11:50:07 PM
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