So the Catholic Church announced it is blackmailing the DC Council over marriage equality, at the expense of the poor and kids without homes.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn't change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care.
Under the bill, headed for a D.C. Council vote next month, religious organizations would not be required to perform or make space available for same-sex weddings. But they would have to obey city laws prohibiting discrimination against gay men and lesbians.
Oh, well, heaven forbid (pun intended) they should have to obey city laws. A couple of points:
The city has anti-discrimination laws on the books. Their claim- that they might be forced to place kids with same-sex parents, for example- is already true under existing law. Catholic Charities, the social services arm of the Church, has lived under those laws for years and received millions from city coffers, and is trying to erode them using scare tactics.
This has nothing to do with the marriage equality legislation. It is a red herring. The legislation provides for exemptions for religious organizations to, for example, not allow same-sex couples to use their religious building for a wedding. The amendment that did not pass on Tuesday relates to individuals' rights, and as Chairman Mendelson said in the WaPo piece, the problem with individual exemption is that anybody can use their religious beliefs to discriminate- back in the 50s and 60s, people said the separation of the races was ordained by God.
Catholic Charities receives DC taxpayer money to fund its services. If they aren't interested in abiding under already-existing DC public laws using our public money, then don't take it. City leaders themselves have pointed out that Catholic Charities is not an indispensible component of city services. I'm no expert on the non-profit world, but I can't imagine there aren't other groups who can use the money to take their place. And I'm not really down with my money going to religious organizations anyway.
In Boston, Catholic Charities shut down its adoption services over the same issue. But before they did so, they had been placing kids in same-sex households to comply with the law until the Boston Globe exposed it and the hierarchy told them to stop. It is plainly nauseating to me that the need to discriminate so overrides the Church's commitment to feed the hungry and clothe the naked that they would take this stand.
Or, as DC Clergy United for Marriage Equality said today:
"The Catholic Church hierarchy is at a crossroads: they must decide whether they are in the charity business for charity's sake, or if imposing their will on the DC City Council and the citizens of the district is their primary interest."
This whole thing reminds me of the Bishop's engagement in the Maine marriage fight, even while his churches were closing, which went so overboard an opposition organization sprung up to generate a lot of pushback. We have to do the same in DC and reach out to people of faith to say that this has nothing to do with the marriage equality legislation, and that Catholic Charities should concentrate on its core values, not pushing its political beliefs.
I'm in the middle of an letter to the WaPo over this. If you are a DC-area resident, please consider joining with me. If you're a Catholic willing to organize in your congregation, drop me a line at adambink at gmail dot com.
Since I've arrived in Maine, I've spent a good deal of time exploring people of faith, their reaction to same-sex marriage, and involvement in the No on 1 campaign. I wrote previously about Bishop Gene Robinson and his framing of religion and same-sex marriage here, and about supportive religious communities here.
Today I want to talk about the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese here, his involvement in the issue- which has become something of a flashpoint here in Maine- and the backlash and response to it in the grassroots.
A little while back, I wrote about how the haters in Maine are using fear of "gay sex education" in public schools as a weapon to scare people into stripping rights away from gay couples in Maine. Here's the bulk of the original e-mail Stand For Marriage Maine sent out:
For many of us, this week marks the start of the new school year. So in honor of back-to-school season, let's try a little pop quiz. Which of the following does not belong in the same group as the others:
(A)History
(B)Mathematics
(C)English
(D)Homosexual Marriage
If you guessed ''D'' - you're right! Mainers firmly believe homosexual instruction has no place in the classroom. Maine's public schools should focus on reading and writing, not mandatory gay sex education.
There's only one problem: an irresponsible piece of legislation known as LD1020. If allowed to take effect this law would throw to the trash heap our decades-old interest in promoting traditional marriage. It would legalize homosexual, genderless marriage. And if marriage is redefined to be genderless, then same-sex marriage must be taught as being the same as traditional marriage. This has profound consequences for your child's classroom education.
Today, Bill Nemitz of the Portland Press Herald picks up the theme debunks the e-mail while ripping the chair of Stand For Marriage Maine, Marc Mutty, a new one:
All of which raises an intriguing question: Who really wrote this - and what have they done with the old Marc Mutty? Mutty was out sick Thursday and thus unavailable to explain what's causing him to see things in Maine's same-sex marriage law that, from any reality-based angle, simply aren't there.
But the Rev. Bob Emrich of the Emmanuel Bible Baptist Church in Plymouth, a member of Stand for Marriage Maine's executive committee, said the group stands by Mutty's claim that the same-sex marriage statute will require "explicit homosexual instruction in the classroom."
One problem. Emrich and Mutty are wrong. Nowhere in the law do the words "school" or "classroom" even appear.
And if you're looking for phrases like "explicit homosexual instruction" hidden in some obscure statutory subsection, trust me - it's not there. Not even in code.
[...]
In a statement issued via e-mail Thursday, Jesse Connolly, campaign manager of No on 1/Protect Maine Equality, predicted that Maine voters will "see through these cynical campaign tactics" by Mutty & Co. as the debate heats up in the coming weeks.
"This is an attempt to divert attention and raise unfounded issues," said Connolly. "Question 1 has nothing to do with schools and no one is voting on curriculum in November."
Connolly is right - and anyone who's taken the time to carefully read Maine's same-sex marriage law knows it.
Including, of all people, Marc Mutty.
This hits the nail right on the head. We still have a fight on our hands, though. The Catholic Bishop in Maine is taking up a second collection in churches around the state for money to fight LGBT equality. Karen Ocamb, who in my opinion has done the best reporting on the optics of the Prop 8 fight in CA, has a brilliant expose at Dirigo Blue on how the same entire religious right that mobilized there is setting up shop in Maine. The haters in Maine are using the same consulting firm, Schubert Flint Public Affairs, that the Yes on 8 campaign used in CA.
Got off a call on the Maine campaign to protect marriage equality, with a few updates:
I wrote last week that the campaign had a $10,000 matching grant from a donor in Maine. The donor then increased the match to $20,000, and we hit that by this past Friday. Thanks to all who gave, that is huge.
The co-chair of the anti-marriage equality group in Maine, Stand For Marriage Maine Coalition, compared LGBT couples to trees, saying:
A barren field full of stumps has had all its trees treated equally, to be sure. But that makes as much sense as looking at the extreme changes to Maine's marriage law approved recently by Gov. Baldacci and calling it marriage equality.
AUGUSTA, MAINE -- Fred Karger, founder of Californians Against Hate, an LGBT watchdog group, sent a letter detailing alleged election law violations by Stand for Marriage Maine to the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices. The request for an immediate investigation was sent yesterday to the Jonathan Wayne, the Commission's Executive Director and a copy to attorney General Janet Mills.
The nine page complaint (below) and fourteen attachments spell out how the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, Knights of Columbus of Washington, DC and James Dobson's Focus on the Family had contributors give the money to their organizations, and then they in turn gave the money to the Stand for Marriage Maine in order to hide the identity of the donors.
[...]
"The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints (Mormon Church) created the National Organization for Marriage specifically to qualify and pass Prop 8 in California. Now they have NOM doing their bidding in Maine, Iowa and all over the Northeast," concluded Karger.
The campaign has set up a "Volunteer Vacation", a great idea, to help folks who want to help with the campaign go to Maine for a week. Immersing onesself in a campaign is really a great, and useful, experience. I did so in 2006 in NY-29 (Massa) managing field and not only was it really a get-away, I learned a lot.
I want to reiterate that this is literally a 10-week campaign until Election Day. It's going to go by fast. The campaign has set up four weeks in October to work, and will provide you with housing. We're also working with TravelForChange.org, which received donations of 11 million airline miles to help Obama volunteers travel last cycle, to help folks financially get to Maine. More on this soon. If you're all set to go with booking your own plane ticket now, sign up here. I'm looking at going up in late October. As Joe Sudbay (who's from Maine) wrote, the folks on the ground are the best, most experienced pros in the state, so you'll be in good hands.
When I was at Netroots Nation last week, I sat in on a meeting organized to work on the No On 1/Protect Maine Equality campaign to protect the recently-passed marriage equality legislation in Maine from repeal. Aside from being a gay man and caring about this very much, I was impressed by one big thing: that in what is an election less than ten weeks out, the No On 1 campaign sent four staff members, including their campaign manager and finance director. I'm not much the cynical "oh, they've just after the netroots ATM" type. Rather, I've talked to my friend Joe Sudbay over at AMERICABlog about them, who is from Maine, and knows many of the staff personally. These folks respect the netroots, respect our ideas and suggestions on the campaign (including lessons learned from folks who worked on Prop 8 in California), and are asking in good faith for our help.
Exhibit A is their first TV spot now up, which gets everything right about how to get at the "ick" factor of LGBT couples in an ad that the Prop 8 committee got wrong.
It shows straight individuals and straight families allied with LGBT couples (did you catch the word "together" repeated three times?). It shows LGBT couples in loving relationships. The Maine residents featured talk about progressive values of respect, fairness, and how LGBT families can make loving and committed families too. I watched it several times.
Losing Prop 8 hurt, and the one other thing I sensed at the meeting was that there are a ton of folks itching to get it right- uphold marriage in a statewide vote, and send a message to the rest of the nation. And right the mistakes we made in California. I want to do that as much as I am concerned that if we lose a second vote, it will not only depress activism and enthusiasm on our side, but will embolden the hate groups and individuals to keep on giving when one of them points to two major successful campaigns in the last two years to say, look, we know how to win these things. Give to us and we'll make sure we get it done in other states. And folks who are undecided around the country will take note of the results.
One of the worst results is that it will make the Obama Administration, which is already cautious and timid on LGBT issues, even more cautious.
We can't let that happen. The right-wingers- National Organization for Marriage, Focus on the Family, Knights of Columbus, the Catholic Diocese have already pumped hundreds of thousands in. The Mormons have done it through more covert means. The same consulting firm that ran the Yes on 8 campaign in California- Schubert Flint- is consulting for them. We have to match it. And I just learned that if we raise $10,000 by Friday, a Maine resident will double it. Let's get it started.
Dangerous Things are happening in America these days, we are told, and the once-innocent citizens of Iowa and Vermont have already been exposed to the hazard...and now it looks as though the contagion might spread to States across New England.
But lucky for us, our friends on the Right are here again to save to save us from...(insert horror film music here)...
...The Gay.
The Gay, it turns out, want the opportunity to marry.
Among other complaints, our friends on the Right feel this will destroy religious tradition, which will ultimately destroy first Christianity, then the Nation. Therefore, religious tradition must be protected at all costs.
Well as it turns out, there are some people from our past who know a few things about religious traditions and how they distort reality-and today, we'll examine the lessons they have to teach us.
