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05/10/2011
Maggie writes 'stigmatize, marginalize & repress' into Prop 8 script; miscasts roles
Pollen. Ragweed. Dander. Cadbury eggs and Matzoh crackers.
For Focus on the Family and their "protect marriage" ally Maggie Gallagher, responsibility for civil discrimination is perhaps the most reliable catalyst for spring (and year-round) allergies:
[O]n Friday, two-time gymnastics gold medalist Peter Vidmar resigned as head of the 2012 U.S. Olympic team after scathing criticism from gay athletes and activists. His crime? He donated $2,000 to support Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot initiative that amended California’s Constitution to protect marriage.
...
Maggie Gallagher, chairman of the National Organization for Marriage, said it’s clear the gay activist network was at work.
“Simply because he donated to Prop. 8, he was declared by the gay rights movement to be unacceptable for public office,” she said. “This is a campaign to stigmatize, marginalize and repress faith communities’ views on marriage.”
Gallagher said Vidmar faced little choice but to resign.
“Peter Vidmar is one of the leading corporate motivational speakers. That’s how he makes a living,” she said. “When the gay rights movement decided to go after him, he recognized that his entire career, his entire livelihood, could be severely damaged.”
Head of 2012 Olympic Team Resigns after Criticism from Gay Activists [Focus on the Family's CitizenLink]
So the irrefutable facts are that (a) Mr. Vidmar chose to donate to California's marriage inequality effort, and (b) he chose to resign from the USOC position in question. Because that's life -- full of both choices and reactions to the same. In this case, Mr. Vidmar's first choice led to a reaction that ultimately convinced him to step down from his office. Would Mr. Vidmar's livelihood have been more adversely affected had he not resigned? Maybe, maybe not. But in this case, it doesn't even matter if you hold or oppose that view. Because in this case, whatever fallout may or may not have come to be is 100% due to Mr. Vidmar's Prop 8 contributions themselves, not gay people's reactions to them! If he was concerned about adverse effects on his livelihood, then he should have considered that at the time he made the donation! Period.
But of course in Maggie World, it's always the pro-equality activist who says "Hey, that person did something discriminatory" who is to fault, not the person who actually, you know -- did something discriminatory. Though fortunately, the marketplace of ideas does seem to be slowly phasing out support for Gallagher's long-held fallacy, with accountability for shitty actions gaining ever more stock.
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