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07/13/2009
'Pro-family' wisdom 101: Marriage equality = urban decay
We've seen the Maine Family Policy Council (neé the Christian Civic League of Maine) and its leader, Mike Heath, stoop to desperate levels before. Hell, we've even heard Mr. Heath intimate that the nation's financial crisis is due to God's anger over gay sex. But their latest, wherein an unidentified staffer attempts to blame homosexuality for some of the urban problems facing the city of Portland, ME, might just top all of the organization's past bottom barrel biases. Here's a snippet:
Homosexuality and other forms of aberrant behavior are on proud display in Portland, home of Maine's "Gay Pride" parade, with its seven hundred foot long Rainbow Flag. The Rainbow Flag is everywhere in Portland. Certain bars cater exclusively to homosexuals, including the club called Styxx
Trash collectors are apparently overwhelmed in Portland. City streets were pristine in 2002, much cleaner than say, Manhattan or Chicago. Now litter and household trash is seen in every part of town, and when the wind blows, the garbage is simply blown down the streets. The photo at below left shows a common sight along lower Congress Street. Garbage is strewn throughout formerly beautiful Deering Oaks Park.
Evidence of crime is often seen, as in the photo below, where a smash and run burglar has smashed out the windows of a parked Audi. The sad thing about this photo is that the theft happened in broad daylight, across from the Eastland Park Hotel, and nothing was done about it. The car sat in that condition for hours, an open invitation for other criminals to do the same.
These photos taken on an average day in Portland are meant to illustrate the fact that the call for same sex marriage and other forms of sexual immorality is not happening in isolation. It is part and parcel of a society which calls itself progressive. But is it really progressive? Is it even Maine? These days, Portland looks like somebody put the city in reverse, and stepped on the gas.
*More, including the referenced photos: Portland Now in Reverse Gear [MFPC]
Oh yes: Marry the gays, suffer urban blight. That's exactly why Martha's Vineyard, after 5+years of marriage equality, now looks more like Martha's Shady Dive Bar. It's why Iowa cornfields are now known more for housing the homeless than for feeding the masses. And it's of course why the entire state of gay-marrying Connecticut, once known for its lush greenery, is now known much less for its agriculture, and much more for its back alley crack. Every state that grants gays equality gos from utopia to cesspool faster than you can say, "I do...want to decay great American cities via my legal lovin' -- bwa ha ha ha ha!"
[::Writer rolls eyes so dramatically, he's sure Maine anti-gays is currently blaming his unabashedly pro-gay derision for destroying at least three more American towns::]
Your thoughts
Hmmm, maybe a cratering economy has something to do with it too. Surprisingly Providence, RI has a gay pride parade too and we're about 150,000 people more in population that Portland. Yet our city is fairly clean. Imagine that.
Posted by: Tony P | Jul 13, 2009 9:38:45 PM
I'm the guilty one.
Every time I see a Pride flag I just can't help but break Audi windows.
db
Posted by: dave b | Jul 13, 2009 11:04:56 PM
Gee, call me simple, but I thought that parts of Boston MASS are now so 'fixed up' as to be unrecognizable as urban blight. Lets' see and those would be areas with a high percentage of folks who are gay. Well, just goes to show one persons urban renewal is another's blight..cuz there might not be a church begging donations to keep the status quo for all their right white brethern on each corner.
Posted by: LOrion | Jul 14, 2009 12:23:35 AM
To be fair: he isn't saying that equal marriage CAUSES urban blight. He's saying that non-closeted homosexuality and urban blight are both symptoms of the same cause. I would expect him to say that cause is the large number of people who aren't the right kind of evangelical Christian, but what he seems to be saying is that it's all caused by 'progressive' politics.
Posted by: Harmless Eccentric | Jul 14, 2009 7:52:46 AM
"To be fair: he isn't saying that equal marriage CAUSES urban blight...what he seems to be saying is that it's all caused by 'progressive' politics.
That line of distinction would seem to be very, very fine.
Posted by: G-A-Y | Jul 14, 2009 8:19:42 AM
I'm from Detroit, and I lived in Portland for several years. I always laughed when people said the neighborhood where I lived in Portland was "the ghetto," as they don't sweep the streets and pick up your recycling in a true ghetto. Contrary to what Mike Heath would have his followers believe, a piece of trash here and there does not a cesspool of urban decay make. As for the smashed out window? I had my car windows smashed once -- while living in a heavily Republican and Christian Pennsylvania small town, that is.
Portland is an extremely friendly, clean, and safe city. I almost feel bad that he can't stop living in fear long enough to enjoy it.
Most people go to Portland to take pictures of all of the quaint lighthouses, storefronts, and beaches. It would figure that Mike Heath would go there to take pictures of garbage and the backsides of teenage Wiccans!
Posted by: Jaime | Jul 14, 2009 8:54:35 AM
Jaime: Yea, I've been to Portland. Had a lovely visit. Found it to be charming.
And yes, I too have had my car damaged -- in conservative Knoxville, TN. It's never happened in the six years that I've had a car in New York City.
Posted by: G-A-Y | Jul 14, 2009 9:50:20 AM
I live in Portland coming from Hartford, CT and I find this to be the cleanest and least crime filled place to live the only thing I have an issue with is that the ppl cant parallel park and keep hitting my car.. and that 700+ foot rainbow flag at the parade was pretty awesome..
Posted by: Peter | Jul 18, 2009 4:34:33 AM
The only possible reason Urban Blight may be caused by equality of marriage is that all of the gays who were previous free of marriage now have to deal with domestic problems rather than move on to the next lover whenever they desire.
Gays have often been the positive influence in urban communities and more so in suburban communities.
My next door neighbor recently divorced her husband. Now, the house is a shambles and she's constantly drunk. I am gay and unmarried. My other neighbor is married and has been "remodeling" for 5years! His house is also a shambles, and he's still married...
I'm gay and single. Did I cause the blight to either side of my house? I think not... If I were married to a man, would that have affect the blight to either side of my house? I think now...
The Bible says, "Judge not lest you be judged with the same judgment..." Pull the telephone pole out of your eye before you try to pull the splinter out of mine...
Posted by: Chris | Jul 18, 2009 10:47:39 AM
What a crock! It's har to believe there are still, STILL Neanderthals out there like this man and this group- eveyr place I have ever lived, including Seattle, bad areas of town have been picked up, cleaned up, and become livable spaces again because gays and lesbians have beautified the area- so let's put the blame squarely where it belong- urban blight has to do with poverty, the same poverty that so many Republicans and so called "Christians"- they are hardy that- who have no issues with poverty , war, and violence as long as they get THEIR piece pf the pie to everyone's else's exclusion- BULL say I, that is not Christianity at all but rather taking God's name in vain- ANYONE who justifies hate and oppression using the name of God is taking His name in vain- as for marriage, again BULL- heterosexuals have done a fine job ruining marriage all by themselves- and when I lived in Maine I kneww many "straight, "Christian" menwho cruised the rest stops and parks in Portland and elsewhere, married straight men who evidently were not satisfied or not getting what they needed at home- so next time Mr.Heath starts getting on his "moral" high horse, maybe we should start naming names- and they are legion- Mr. Heath et al- remember we know WHO you are, WHAT you DO in secret that your wives and family don't know about, and we know ytour names- want them published? ;>)
I didn't think so! God fporbid these hypocrites should be exposed to the light of day for who and what they are!
Posted by: William Rogers RN (Ret.) | Jul 18, 2009 2:32:59 PM
I think it is time to watch these fools crumble.
They only prove time and again what complete and total idiots they are.
Apparently they think that Gays & Lesbians live on an alternate planet and are not privy to the lawlessness of Heterosexuals, and the fact that it is, indeed, the breeders who litter and deface and destroy their neighborhoods.
It is OUR job to go in and clean up their disgusting living conditions, and make everything pretty again. And raise the property values. YOU'RE WELCOME, STRAIGHTY! ; )
You see straights, it's like this: ANYTHING beautiful - Gays did it.
Posted by: Bill | Jul 20, 2009 2:28:02 PM
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