At the beginning of August, Minnesota for Marriage, which had failed to passed the amendment to limit the freedom to marry last November, then in May failed to stop marriage equality from being the law in Minnesota, launched the Marriage Majority Initiative "to restore a pro-marriage majority in the Minnesota House in 2014."
Think Progress took a critical look in How Minnesota Conservatives Are Manipulating Marriage Equality For Political Purposes.
Not everyone agrees with that assessment. Consider, if you will, the opinion of Helen Beekman of Raymond, Minnesota, in her letter to the editors of the West Central Tribune, Build a pro-marriage majority:
What is the Marriage Majority Initiative? The Marriage Majority Initiative will work to restore a pro-marriage majority in the Minnesota House in 2014 by supporting legislators who withstood immense political pressure in order to cast a vote in defense of traditional marriage, and by helping Minnesotans find better representation for themselves in districts where legislators abandoned their constituents in favor of the same-sex “marriage” lobby. The LGBT activists, through character assassination and emotional blackmail, have succeeded in changing the minds of many legislators who went against the desires of their constituents. . . .
"[C]haracter assassination and emotional blackmail"? Where has Bluestem seen that language before?
We didn't see that behavior in the lobbying or floor debates for or against marriage equality, which were praised for their civility. Oh, yes: that exact phrasing appears in Lessons from France on Defending Marriage, a January column by Robert Oscar Lopez, a man who testified in both state house and senate hearings on the marriage bills this spring. He wrote:
Nobody in the US has been able to break the stranglehold of threats, character assassination, and emotional blackmail that has allowed LGBT activists to call those who doubt their proposals bigots (and get them fired, incidentally).
Aside from a few Twin Cities progressive bloggers who apparently didn't get the memo from Minnesotans United for All Families that calling a person names in a real conversation isn't persuasive, mostly it was marriage opponents who talked about being called bigots.
Why does the famous scene in Blazing Saddles when Sheriff Bart (Cleavon Little) holds himself hostage come to mind?
But we digress. Beekman goes on to cite Lopez's praise of gay Frenchmen who supposedly led demonstrations against marriage equality:
Interestingly in January, France, whose own gay activists now regret the redefinition of marriage and the family, themselves had led the French people in a protest against the redefinition of marriage. As stated by Oscar Lopez, “The live and let live philosophy of life should not apply when the trend is to take away the rights of children. The rights of children trump the rights to children.” A child’s most sacred right is to have a father and a mother. The bill will prove to be a disaster for our children, our families and our country.
So when I see our media so delighted over the Aug. 1 Minneapolis City Hall marriages, I can only come up with the conclusion that they haven’t done their homework, nor have they thought for themselves, but conveniently bought into a lie.
That may be easy for her to say in Raymond, Minnesota, just up the road from Bluestem's world headquarters. We took to the Internet to learn more about the the anti-gay gay Frenchmen. At site in New Zealand, we read in “Homovox” Exposed:
When is an LGBT organisation not an LGBT organisation? When it has been established by an antigay French conservative Catholic to make it seem as if there is “French LGBT” opposition to marriage equality. Thus it is with France’s “Homovox”, allegedly a “French” gay organisation of “LGBT” marriage equality opponents. However, on his website, Joe. My. God’s commenters uncovered who was actually behind the website, which turned out to be someone from the French Catholic Right. To be more precise:
Maillard Jean-Baptiste
13 rue Clapeyron
Paris, 75008
FR
+33.664806169A google search of Maillard Jean-Baptiste turned up this:
He appears to be an anti-gay French Catholic. As was one of the other gay contributors: http://www.araigneedudesert.fr… and (from my bad French translation) seems to be a catholic too. Makes sense that they are spouting the Catholic talking points. And moreover…
All of this guy's books are for sale on a French anti-gay Catholic website. . .
There's more--read the rest there. Buzzfeed's Rosie Gray also provided an overview of the French gay people who oppose gay marriage--and the Americans who love them--back in January.
Americablog recently revisited the Facebook page of the French anti-marriage forces, reporting back in France’s gayest homophobes strike again:
I’ve written before about France’s deliciously gay-acting anti-gay activists.
I noted, with lots of examples, how a new high profile group on the scene, called Hommen, is virulently opposed to legalizing gay marriage, which already happened in France.
I also walked you through, with lots and lots of delicious photos, how Hommen’s main weapon in its arsenal of heterocracy is the half-naked male form. . . .
Well, they’re at it again.
This time, it’s the boys over at Manif Pour Tous – France’s lead anti-gay group – and they’re getting semi-naked again, in the most homoerotic way possible. (Rubbing their semi-nude bodies against one another is not only NOT against the Manif Pour Tous rules, it’s apparently encouraged).
Here are some of the recent photos on Manif Pour Tous’ Facebook page.
Bluestem reposts one image of these anti-marriage equality protest above. We hope that Beekman appreciates seeing continued leadership of French cute boys. Like the mountains behind them, that's just not something we see much on the sunny prairie.
Photo: The hills are alive with the sound of music.(via Americablog)
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