A religious right front group that is against same sex marriage is going to air a commercial that not only has actors giving fake personal stories but the stories have nothing to do with same sex marriage. The group, the National Organization for Marriage, instead is smearing gays by using made up problems. The Human Rights Campaign found the audition tapes and responds to the fake ad.
Human Rights Watch response to the ad includes:
The general argument of the ad is that the push for marriage equality isn’t just about rights for same-sex couples, it’s about imposing contrary values on people of faith. The examples they cite in the ad are:
(1) A California doctor who must choose between her faith and her job
(2) A member of New Jersey church group which is punished by the state because they can’t support same-sex marriage
(3) A Massachusetts parent who stands by helpless while the state teaches her son that gay marriage is okay
The facts indicate that (1) refers to the Benitez decision in California, determining that a doctor cannot violate California anti-discrimination law by refusing to treat a lesbian based on religious belief, (2) refers to the Ocean Grove, New Jersey Methodist pavilion that was open to the general public for events but refused access for civil union ceremonies (and was fined by the state for doing so) and (3) refers to the Parker decision in Massachusetts, where parents unsuccessfully sought to end public school discussions of family diversity, including of same-sex couples.
All three examples involve religious people who enter the public sphere, but don’t want to abide by the general non-discriminatory rules everyone else does. Both (1) and (2) are really about state laws against sexual orientation discrimination, rather than specifically about marriage. And (3) is about two pairs of religious parents trying to impose their beliefs on all children in public schools.
Human Rights Campaign Exposes National Organization for Marriage’s Fake Ad for Fake Problems
That’s how these religious right ads and talking points go. They use an extreme view, claim it is a problem, and say it is being forced on them. The truth is they don’t want to abide by the same rules as others do. The religious right think they are exceptional or special.
*April 14th Update*
It seems the group behind the fake ad against gay marriage was not happy that the audition tape got out so they leaned on YouTube and the version of the auditions that I linked to was pulled off the service. They also pulled off a YouTube video of the segment from The Rachel Maddow Show that discussed the fake ad and the auditions and had used only clips of the auditions. Yes the religious asshats had a NEWS clip censored.
So I decided to edit this post and remove their fake ad and its link, so if you want to see it search for it yourself.
I can’t link to the audition tapes because that link won’t work after a while so instead use your favorite search engine with these key words: National Organization for Marriage Auditions
A version somewhere in the world should be available.
