« Go back a post || Return to G-A-Y homepage || Haul tail to next post »
04/27/2011
Audio: Roback Morse's Adoption Q&A (*or more like Q & strategically rephrased Q)
This is simply unbelievable logic. At a speech delivered at Stanford University, NOM affiliate Jennifer Roback Morse completely sidestepped an audience member's honest question about same-sex adoption and bans thereupon, so that she could instead conflate an anti-LGBT Christian's "right" to discriminate with civil discrimination itself. Listen in:
[SOURCE: NOM's Ruth Institute]
Notice she never answers the question, and that's most surely because (a) she doesn't actually support same-sex couples adopting but (b) knows that this frank admission would be a potential liability. So instead, Ms. Morse follows the typical "pro-family" form of referring back to the preconceived memes that their larger machine is working at whatever particular moment in time. In this case, it's all about pitting supposed "religious freedom" against the law as it applies to certain agencies. Never mind that "Christian" is a label that includes all kinds of people and viewpoints (including gay people and equality). Never mind that true religious freedom is protected under law (i.e. an adoption agency could not discriminate against a couple on the basis of their Christian faith). Ms. Morse has a victim strategy to work, so work it she will.
No, adoption agencies have not been "shut down by gay rights activists" The truth: Some adoption agencies HAVE CHOSEN to shut down rather than comply with anti-discrimination ordinances applicable to sexual orientation. Others have willfully complied or found other ways to channel their work in adherence with their beliefs. By making it all about the anomalies who want to have it both ways (discrimination and government subsidization), Ms. Morse does a disservice to many. Gay couples. Accepting Christians. Responsible crafters of nondiscrimination ordinances. But mostly: The conversation in general.
***
*Oh, and this is just brilliant: After Morse tried for the third or fourth time to reframe an audience member's question rather than actually answer it , the perceptive audience roars with laughter and "answer the question!" cries:
[SOURCE: NOM's Ruth Institute]
***
*Morse's full Stanford Q&A: It is seriously ridiculous how many times she, the paid supposed "expert," flips every single question rather than answer it. Or just flat refuses to even take it on:
[SOURCE: NOM's Ruth Institute]