Same-Sex Marriage: Anne Hathaway, Reason, and Rhetoric

Popular actress Anne Hathaway, who recently starred as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises, received an award in 2008 from the Human Rights Campaign, an organization dedicated to the rights of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community. In her acceptance speech, Hathaway explained why she supports homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Read carefully the reasons she offers:

“In my household, being gay was, and is, no big deal. When my brother came out, we hugged him, said we loved him, and that was that…Just for the record, we don’t feel that there is actually anything alternative about our family values…I don’t consider myself just an ally to the LGBT community, I consider myself your family…if anyone, ever, tries to hurt you, I’m going to give them hell…There are people who have said that I’m being brave for being openly supportive of gay marriage, gay adoption, basically of gay rights. But with all due respect I humbly dissent. I’m not being brave. I’m being a decent human being. And I don’t think I should receive an award for that, or for merely stating what I believe to be true, that love is a human experience, not a political statement. However, I acknowledge that sadly we live in a world where not everybody feels the same. My family and I will help the good fight continue until that long awaited moment arrives, when our rights are equal and when the political limits on love have been smashed.”

Same-sex Rhetoric & Miss America

(www.str.org) Greg Koukl

Rhetoric is winning the day.

Lately when I hear public crossfire-type discussions on the issue of same-sex marriage—discussions that have filled the airwaves since the unfortunate incident at the Miss America pageant—traditional marriage wins on the merits, but the other side wins the rhetoric game.

It’s time we stop letting others frame the debate in terms of “tolerance,” “fairness,” “equality,” and “compassion,” in a way that pushes us into defense mode trying to neutralize the loaded language, but never really gaining any ground for our side.

The fact is, decent Americans are the ones being bullied here, citizens who are people of conscience, overflowing with tolerance in the classic sense, but are being pushed around and oppressed because they disagree with the extreme views of the minority. Instead of making the case for traditional marriage, maybe we should also point out what's really going on behind the rhetoric that appeals to fairness and equality.

Let me tell you what’s really going on here.

Good people with honest differences with the Homosexual agenda are being bullied.

First, Americans are incredibly tolerant of homosexuality, especially considering the moral concerns lots of folks have with it. Same-sex couples have been getting married for years in private ceremonies. No one interferes, and no one should.

Americans are happy to give equal rights, and that is done virtually everywhere. However, they do not want their arms twisted into approving something they do not think is good for America or for families. That’s the real issue.

Think about it: The government represents the people. When the government steps in and gives its approval, it’s like the people are giving their approval. With a marriage license for same-sex couples, it’s the same as the people saying that same-sex relationships are exactly the same as heterosexual relationships.

Some of those people do think that, but the vast majority of Americans do not—witnessed by the dozens of state referendums—and should not be forced to act like they do.

Miss California was bullied, and good, tolerant, compassionate Americans are being bullied, too. Decent people around the country do not want that.

Decent Americans who step out of line with political correctness are being punished simply for dissenting.

And they also don’t want to be punished for their views. Miss California was clearly manipulated by a homosexual judge for his own political purposes.

Increasingly, homosexual rights extremists are repressing dissent and oppressing those who disagree with them. More and more often, good people are being punished because they hold a different point of view—punished through name calling, punished through harassment, punished through public humiliation and intimidation (like Miss California after the pageant), punished through lawsuits, and even sometimes punished through the loss of their jobs (after Prop 8 passed in CA, for example).

Same-sex marriage is a strong-arm attempt of a minority to force public approval of homosexuality from a majority who doesn’t approve.

A marriage license does not confer any significant liberties that same-sex couples do not already have. Instead, it is meant to give them what they’ve been demanding for a long time—complete, unqualified, unconditional, and undiminished, social approval.

This is not about equal rights. It’s about public validation and social acceptance. It’s about one group who has a minority view trying to use the law to force their views on other people who don’t agree with them. If people want to celebrate same-sex unions, fine. That’s their business. Let them do that in private ceremonies, even religious ones if they can arrange them. But the government shouldn’t get involved. That basically gives broad cultural affirmation by government decree.

The insistence for same-sex marriage is about a radical attempt to alter the foundational institution of civilization by using government muscle to strong-arm the decent Americans into affirming a lifestyle and set of behaviors they does not, by and large, approve of, but are willing to tolerate as long as it is not forced on them.

The challenges, on balance, are empty and manipulative.

As to the charge, “That’s discrimination!,” I only note that it’s the same discrimination we make against polygamy. The people are not going to endorse polygamy because they think it’s wrong, just as they think same-sex marriage is wrong. Every argument for same-sex marriage is an argument for polygamy—and polyandry (multiple husbands), and polyamory (group marriage), etc. (get creative). If not one, why not the other?

Same-sex marriage advocates must support polygamy, given their logic. If they say, “That’s ridiculous,” I say, “You’re right. It is ridiculous. That’s my point. Ridiculous conclusions follow from the reasoning same-sex marriage advocates present.”

This is not about redefining marriage. This is about redefining civilization.

Tyra Banks: Is Gay the New Black?

(Townhall.com) Sandy Rios

The show began with a flashback of a lesbian and her mother discussing the daughter’s upcoming “marriage” on The Tyra Banks Show. The mother was sweet but broken at the thought of her daughter “marrying” another woman. There was nothing superior in her attitude … nothing remotely unkind in her tone, just the broken heart of a mother watching her daughter make a choice she felt was immoral.

On this day, they were appearing again on that same couch, this time mother, wife and wife. Had the mother, in fact, gone to the wedding? Yes … she had, but sat on the back row. The inference? Bad. The stepfather videotaped the entire wedding, but allegedly nudged his daughter away from her white-gowned partner to take a photo alone. Inference? Really bad. The parents didn’t stay for the reception—that was too was bad. As the mother wept again and declared her love for her daughter, the daughter remained the victim. How really bad for the mom to make the daughter feel “bad” in this way. If mom would just get over her own pain and convictions on the matter and accept this “marriage,” her daughter and partner could be happy.

Next segment: Sam Harris, a fabulous singer from the Star Search years, has adopted a baby girl with his male partner. His passionate and angry outburst on YouTube at the passage of Proposition 8 in California—defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman—was the next feature.

Enter the panel: A black, perfectly dressed marriage and family attorney from New York, an expert at defending the rights of homosexuals; a white lesbian, Charlene, whose partner was lost in a flash flood in Seattle and was subsequently denied the right to visit her in a coma— until it was cleared by family; the third was Sam Harris.

On the other side was a beautiful black mom of two little children from South Carolina named Karen…Mrs. Average American, chosen because she objects to homosexual marriage; Dr.Bill Meier, psychologist with Focus on the Family and me, Sandy Rios, of notable opposition to homosexual marriage and gay adoption. Dr. Meier was prepped and ready with valuable facts and information but what followed was not what we had expected.

The audience wore “gay” and “straight” t-shirts to indicate their sexual preference. An additional group in an unidentified color was of inclination unknown. The “gay” group were notably men … the “straight” mostly women.

Tyra Banks entered from the back and without introducing any of us, began the interaction.

Tyra: Sandy, is gay the new black? [A borrowed theme from “The Advocate.”]

Sandy: Reminds me of the old intelligence tests. This is to this as that is to that. Some similarities, but ultimately no match. Black is an intrinsic God-given characteristic that cannot change. How you have sex is a choice you make and you can change that.

Audience: Boo!!!!

Sandy: “The Boy from Minnesota” from the recently-nominated movie “Milk” was 17 when Harvey Milk, the first openly gay city commissioner from San Francisco, befriended him. Girard Dols has now left the homosexual lifestyle and is a chaplain in Wisconsin. It is possible to change.”

Audience: More boos.

Gay man: You think I would choose this discrimination? You think I can live without sex?

Sandy: As a heterosexual female whose had to live without sex, I assure you, you can.

Then my ally, “Karen,” made a fatal mistake. She made mention of God and the Bible. Like a cross held before the blood-induced stupor of a new vampire, the rage began. The female attorney went on a tirade about how irrelevant the Bible was today. The white lesbian invoked her personal faith accusingly and relayed how she and her partner had taken communion together the week before she was drowned. “These people make their case against us solely on the Bible,” declared another.

Then a young, gay man, was recognized by Tyra. He said his father had just beaten him for being gay because the Bible had instructed him to do so. He wept uncontrollably, but it was difficult to tell if the story was genuine or if he was a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild. It must have been purely coincidental that he was seated on the end, Tyra chose him for a comment and the tears came so perfectly timed. From across the studio 50 feet away, Tyra accused me of “looking” insensitive.

The show became a free for all. The bottom line was that homosexuals are victims and the three of us—along with the mom and dad in the earlier segment—were insensitive hateful, standing in the way of full happiness for all homosexuals.

And then as abruptly as it had started, the show ended. We left the stage, the three of us, following our three “opponents.” I was struck by how fruitless the exchange had been and so I addressed them to their backs, “I wish the six of us could just sit down and talk.” The large, white lesbian spun around and declared angrily, “I don’t have anything to say to you. You have no idea what I’ve been through. I lost my lover and couldn’t even visit her in the hospital.”

“I do know something about that and I think that’s terrible,” I responded.

“You hate me!” she announced.

“You know nothing about me,” I replied.

I looked to Sam who began shouting at me for being a bigoted homophobe—just like the perpetrators of racial hatred in the civil rights era. I reached out for his elbow and he snarled, “Don’t touch me!” As he continued to yell and accuse, I asked, “Sam, why is it you can’t have a conversation? Why is it you can talk but seem unable to listen?” He moved on angrily. A few moments later, my sweet partner, Karen, the slightly plump mom from South Carolina was making her way to the bathroom when the homosexual-marriage-defending, well-put-together black attorney yelled at her that she was fat and needed to lose some weight.

Yes. Homosexuals are the victims and we are the haters. It must be true because that’s what you see on TV. You will see that clearly when the show is aired. But what you won’t see is the hatred and anger regularly doled out by homosexual activists on people who oppose their view—especially people of faith.

It is the price to be paid for speaking the truth in the hopes that some will listen—and lives will be transformed.

I don’t mind. What I do mind is that millions are deceived…gay and straight.