Audio: NOM cofounder, Princeton professor Robert George compares secret Nazi teacher to out gay teacher

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07/14/2015

by Jeremy Hooper

When teacher Margie Winters was hired at Waldron Mercy Academy in 2007, she says she told the Philadelphia area Catholic school that she is married to a woman. According to Winters, the school requested she just not discus it with parents or kids, a rule by which she says she abided. However, after some parents found out earlier this year, Winters was asked to resign from her position. When Winters refused to resign her position of nearly eight years, the school fired her.

According to Robert George, the National Organization For Marriage cofounder and Princeton University professor who conservatives consider a great scholar (he coauthored the Bush era Federal Marriage Amendment), this situation is comparable to a secret Nazi who has a personal life that's at odds with the school's teachings:

[Drew Mariani Show]

Let's first talk about Mr. George's two caveats about Naziism being different from homosexuality. What point do they serve other than to make Mr. George feel better? Because he is, indeed, comparing the two types of "personal life" behavior. Out of all the billions of things he could choose to compare to a same-sex marriage, he chose Nazism. That is a choice that few, other than hardcore anti-gay activists with deeply entrenched agendas, would even dream of making.

And since he did make it, let's talk about the obvious difference. Nazism, as an ideology and/or practice, is one that should be of great concern to an employer because it would mean an employee who has a professed refusal to acknowledge the worth and dignity of certain "undesirables." In a role of teacher, this concern would be obviously exacerbated. A person who subscribes to this set of beliefs is likely not in full accordance with the curriculum of the school. If this came to light, it likely would be of great concern to parents and faculty alike.

But being a human being who was born gay and who is lucky enough to have found a life partner to marry? That's not like being a closet Nazi. At all. In any ballpark. Again, except that ballpark that the rest of us are quickly realizing as unworthy of serious discussion among serious people, yet the one that conservative America still seems to embrace as both its present and its future.

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