Defining This Race First

by: Adam Bink

Fri Sep 04, 2009 at 17:02

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.

Gay sex education?! They teach that now?! Where can I sign up?

Jokes aside, the haters will lie and smear their way into victory during this campaign. Conflating marriage equality into "mandatory gay sex education" is insulting and a horrific exaggeration, but that's what they do. These are real families with real children being raised just like other kids. Nowhere in the legislation are there any kind of required classes. The right-wing has always used fear as a weapon, and it's fear of instilling values here.

Our side needs to counter it with the truth. This new ad launching after Labor Day is the way to do it. Sam Putnam, the teenager with two moms in this new ad from the No On 1 campaign, does not look like he has gay sex horns growing out of his head.

Maine residents will start to vote in mid-October. That's just six weeks away. The race to define this thing is on, and as I've heard from all my Maine contacts, it needs to be "live and let live." That message is up for grabs. With mail like this, the right-wingers are pushing their own version of that. We have to push ours.

Last night, No On 1 was added as the very first race on the Orange to Blue page from DailyKos. Jesse Connolly, the campaign manager of the No On 1 campaign, posted at DailyKos today about the campaign, thanking the netroots, including us, for helping raise the money to put ads like this on the air. Please rec and comment. Let's tip our hat back to him from OpenLeft and define this fight for Maine residents first, before the other side does.