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05/01/2014

Maggie Gallagher refers to a gay kid, wedding as 'family crisis'

by Jeremy Hooper

Screen Shot 2014-05-01 At 2.24.46 PmMaggie Gallagher isn't mad at Prop 8 attorney Charles Cooper for essentially selling out his movement and admitting that his views on marriage, like so many other people's views on this topic, are evolving. No, no, because you see, Maggie understands what a terrible "family crisis" Cooper must be going through, due to his gay daughter and her plans to go against "natural law" and all:

Unbeknownst to any of us, [Prop 8 lawyer Charles Cooper] was at the time in the middle of the turmoil of the political becoming the personal. In 2013, before he attempted to argue the Prop 8 case before the Supreme Court, he learned his wife’s daughter (his stepdaughter) was gay and would be married to a woman in Massachusetts. He and his wife are co-hosting the same-sex wedding ceremony.

Cooper said two things that upset many people on our side: “My views evolve on issues of this kind the same way as other people’s do, and how I view this down the road may not be the way I view it now, or how I viewed it ten years ago,” he said to Jo Becker some months ago. And when the book became public and the news of his stepdaughter’s wedding came out he told AP: ““My daughter Ashley’s path in life has led her to happiness with a lovely young woman named Casey, and our family and Casey’s family are looking forward to celebrating their marriage in just a few weeks.”

I received many emails from people who were angry and upset by his comments, but if he were here in front of me (and I hope he reads this) this is what I would say to Charles Cooper:

“Thank you for your hard work, and your service. I had no idea you were working this hard, for so little benefit to yourself and your career, while simultaneously managing a family crisis like this. Thank you for being faithful to the end to your client and our cause. And I wish God’s blessings on you and your family.”

I would say this, even though I do not see how someone faithful to the Biblical or the natural law underlying it, can host a gay wedding. (More on this in another letter).

Nonetheless, we cannot let the “system” overwhelm the human person.

Not just Charles Cooper, we are all struggling with how to respond to the new moral order implied and reified by gay marriage.

Cooper, Mozilla, Firefox [MaggieGallagher.com]
(h/t: Scott Hutcheson)

And that kind of disregard, Maggie, is precisely why so many people are evolving. To be frank, Maggie, you and your disrespectful talk, which you always thought was more stealth than it was, is the exact sort of thing that has turned off so many.

In many very real ways, Ms. Gallagher, you (and the orgs you founded) have lost this fight for your side. Yes, we won and we would have eventually won no matter what—but the kind of language that portrays a human being's luck in truth and love as a "family crisis" is the very thing that Americans have heard, weighed against the other options, and increasingly rejected. Much of that is on you, Gallagher. You were the most major player in this fight, and your movement still uses ideas and talking points that came from your mind. They were bad talking points and bad ideas. Deeply disrespectful ones, even if with filtered through the Catholics' preferred tone.

So now you say you're struggling how to respond to gay marriage? Um, no, let's be clear here: you spent a very long time telling people how to respond to our marriages. And you blew it, Maggie. For the sake of all involved, it might be better if you move on to a new topic. Maybe you'll have better luck addressing actual threats to the American family. Hell, I might even work with you on some of those. But on this one, your moment in the sun has passed. Move on.

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