7 Comments

• Josh
  October 26th, 2008 at 11:22 am

  What exactly does your compelling case consist of? You might want to try a more meaningful argument than emotional appeal related to a completely different topic.

  “I can’t believe they would jail [my husband] because we believe…”

  Listen, lady. Your husband being jailed has nothing to do with your beliefs, it has to do with his “I’m not leaving until I get my way” threat. You’d better believe that a disruptive person failing to disperse is in violation of the law.

• N
  October 26th, 2008 at 12:14 pm

  There is actually a case being made here, isn’t there? The case consists of pointing out that some parents don’t want their kids taught this stuff. But it assumes what it sets out to prove — that the rights of parents who don’t want their kids taught this stuff is more important than the rights of gay people who want to get married. That weighing of rights is exactly the heart of the issue, and by (at points very smugly) pretending that there aren’t any potentially countervailing rights on the other side of the debate, the spokesman in the video fails to actually engage in that debate. Many would say that is a complicated issue, and that to simplify it as one where there are not countervailing rights seems to dehumanize the gay minority that is trying to claim those rights.

• K
  October 26th, 2008 at 4:42 pm

  Also, the argument implicit in this post/video gets the facts wrong about CA law. Not one word in Prop 8 mentions education, and no child can be forced, against the will of their parents, to be taught anything about health and family issues at school. California law prohibits it. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley has already ruled that this claim by Prop 8 proponents is “false and misleading.” The Orange County Register, traditionally one of the most conservative newspapers in the state, says this claim is false. So do lawyers for the California Department of Education.
  The Family Research Council, who produced this video, is the same charming organization that repeatedly claims (despite regular correction from the experts) that there is a link between homosexuality and pedophilia. They do not have a reputation as being a trustworthy source.

• Brent B.
  October 26th, 2008 at 5:46 pm

  You should probably note this statement by California’s Superintendent of Schools, in which he notes that California public schools are not required to teach schoolchildren anything about marriage. Proposition 8 wouldn’t change that at all, so the video’s argument is at best a red herring and at worst demagoguery.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIL7PUl24hE

• Sam
  October 26th, 2008 at 9:41 pm

  As others have said, the logic in the video is flawed. One may have legitimate issues with educating kindergartners about same-sex marriage, but to imply that legalizing same-sex marriage REQUIRES said education is misleading and disingenuous. The fact that masturbation is legal doesn’t require us to teach kindergartners about it. The real issue here is curriculum choice and parental notification, not gay marriage.

  It’s pathetic that a man being punished for trespassing after protesting a curriculum choice is being touted as a serious “externality” of legalization of same-sex marriage.

• Josh
  October 26th, 2008 at 10:20 pm

  By the way, the video makes the case FOR Proposition 8. Please proof and edit your posts with somewhat more care.

• reneegerber
  October 27th, 2008 at 12:08 am

  Josh, I actually do think this video is a good case AGAINST Prop 8, even if I’m not sure the poster meant that. Basically, this video is saying, “How dare our children be asked to be taught to tolerate people whose lives we disagree with?” My response: Homosexuality ain’t going to be the only thing your kids are going to be exposed to in school that you might not agree with. If this thin, attenuated “Save the children!” argument is the best they’ve got (which, as N said, assumes that parents’ rights against an *unnecessary* curriculum change are greater than gay people’s right to marry), well, that’s a pretty bad reason to vote for Prop 8.