Read: Hubristic Thomas More Society claims discrimination is victimized position

« Go back a post || Return to G-A-Y homepage || Haul tail to next post »

01/04/2013

by Jeremy Hooper

Illinois' same-sex couples cannot have their deserved civil freedoms because doing so might make those who oppose feel like bigots. So says the (Catholic) Thomas More Society, echoing the familiar refrain with which the anti-equality side keeps trying to dupe the public:

Those of us who cover this stuff are quite familiar with the self-victimizing game. But when you step back and think about it, it's truly outrageous how easily these "values" groups peddle this strategy. It is literally like the public school lunch room bully saying he wants to take away another kid's lunch money because that other kid's ability to eat peacefully might threaten the bully's own government-granted satiation. This, even though the bully has his own lunch, which the other kid is not at all trying to take away from him. The bully just wants his cake *and* the other kid's cake too.

And I say this as someone who doesn't think all people who oppose marriage equality are "bullies." Not even close. I'd much prefer to focus on the merits of civil marriage rather than the arrogance of the arguments opposing it. It's the organized "protect marriage" movement and their crude attempts to flip the script (in order to absolve their concerted conscience) that have forced my hand.

***

**CORRECTION: An earlier edition of this post referred to the Thomas More Society as the Thomas More Law Center, a separate conservative legal outfit based out of Ann Arbor, MI. Sorry for the confusion.

space