Protect Our Rights and Jobs. Vote Yes Prop 8

Yes on Prop 8 teacher is threatened with his job because he does not want to redefine marriage.

Those who call for parents to be allowed to know what their children are being taught in public school are purveyors of "hate speech."

That is the absurd message from Know Thy Neighbor, a pro-gay marriage group that, sadly, relies on intimidation rather than dialogue to promote its dogmatic philosophy that anybody who disagrees is a "hater."

Sadder still, the group's intimidation tactics have now shut down a chance for dialogue in Gloucester between those of different views.

Cape Ann Marriage and Family, a group that has been active in seeking a statewide referendum on gay marriage, had planned a meeting this Saturday at Valentino's, a Main Street pizza parlor, that was to feature a lecture by David Parker of Lexington.

Parker is suing the state for the right to be notified when issues regarding sexuality, including gay marriage, are taught in his young son's school. His case was initially dismissed but is on appeal.

His complaint arose in 2005, when his 5-year-old son came home from school with a children's book that portrayed families headed by same-sex couples.

This, in the view of Know Thy Neighbor's Tom Lang, of Manchester, means that Parker finds "the mere existence of gay people" to be harmful to children - a vast distortion of Parker's complaint.

Lang contacted Armando Marnoto, co-owner of Valentino's, and told him that if the restaurant hosted the meeting, Know Thy Neighbor might organize a protest.

There is some dispute about why the event will not happen there. Marnoto says it is because Cape Ann Marriage and Family had not confirmed the event or made a deposit. The group says it was due to pressure from Know Thy Neighbor.

But the Know Thy Neighbor tactic is typical. During the petition drive seeking to put gay marriage on the ballot, the group posted on its Web site the names of those who signed the petition. Lang claimed this had nothing to do with intimidation - a laughable assertion, since the whole idea was to help gay marriage advocates accuse any neighbors who supported the referendum of being haters.

Lang and others who object to Parker's message have every right to protest and oppose that message. But if they truly think they have a convincing case to make, they could do it much better by arguing the merits, rather than waving signs that hurl blanket epithets at those who disagree with them.


The glory of free speech is hearing all sides of an issue, not trying to shout down one side or another with absurd insults.

One wonders what Lang would do if his own young son came home with a book from school that declared that the only legitimate families were those headed by a father and a mother. Surely he would demand to know what his son was being taught, so he could argue his own case.

The issue, on the surface, is about gay marriage. But the deeper issue is parental rights. The topics could be war and peace, the environment, gun control or any of a host of others.

Does Know Thy Neighbor really think parents should have no right to know what their children are being taught in school? If so, that is a debate well worth having.

It is sad that it won't happen because some would rather intimidate than debate.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Garriage
• Teachers
• Prop
• Education
• Families
• Children
• Gay
• Tyranny
• Jobloss
• Marriage
• Love
• Protect
• Definition

[smurf7777]

Hold on... THIS is the best ad that the Pro-Prop 8 people could come up with, and the majority of the voting public of California still approved of it?

"Oh no! Children will realize that there's gay people in the world! Nooooooo!"

Sorry. Not a good enough reason to deny people rights.

[ChristainPatriot01]

God bless.

[lisztnut]

@ma7799 oops, my mistake, I have been groped in Paris and Argentina at the airport. My bad. I think I had to go through a strange kind of X-ray when I went to East Germany and Russia, during the Communist days. Also, China had a similar machine. But, no groping there.

[lisztnut]

@ma7799 nope, never been groped by them, sorry to disappoint you. However, you might try a plane next time, because it's much faster. I don't know how I could get to Buenos Aires on a train. Any ideas?

[ma7799]

@lisztnut

it is no surprise that you love to ride planes, because you get turned on by those perverted ATS people groping you! haha

[lisztnut]

@ma7799 still living in the Midwest and watching boring trains go by? I live where I can see the new 380 double decker Airbus flying in from Germany every day. I bet you've never seen an aeroplane that big, have you?

[lisztnut]

@ma7799 oh, yes, it's true. Religious assholes who have gay children and teach them that being gay is a "sin" should be arrested for child abuse. No two ways about it. It is a form of mental abuse that should not go unpunished.

[ma7799]

@lisztnut

oh no how horrible! hahaah

[lisztnut]

@ma7799 the fact remains that nearly 100 percent of gay children are indoctrinated into heterosexuality.  The interesting thing is that doesn't change the fact that gay children are being born every day. It's funny how nature keeps doing that, isn't it? I wonder why it is that there are 7000 species of animals that mate with same sex partners. Are they "sinners" with a "deviant", "chosen" lifestyle? Nonsense. Homosexuality is equally as natural and normal as heterosexuality.

[lisztnut]

@ma7799 if someone has gay kids, they are OBLIGED to love this kids and treat them the same as they would treat their straight kids. Children have a tough enough time without having some religious bigots screaming at them that they are "sinners" simply because they were born gay.

[lisztnut]

@YesProp8 anyone who cannot see why voting on the civil rights of a minority as small as the gay community is immoral has some real problems understanding the concept of democracy. Democracy does NOT mean that 95 percent of the population votes to remove the rights of five percent. That's called "Mobocracy." I'm glad the USA has a court system designed precisely to protect the minorities from the tyranny of the majority. Our founding fathers knew exactly what they were doing.

[lisztnut]

@YesProp8 can someone please tell me how the religious bigots twisted the concept of a gay couple getting married into making themselves seem like victims? EXCUSE ME?  The REAL victims here are the gay couples and the children of gay couples who LOST their civil rights due to this blatant discrimination and bigotry. Stop crying victim when you are the aggressors. Prop 8 was like two wolves and one sheep voting on who to eat for dinner. It was an uneven playing field. See you in court!