“They [gay marriage proponents] hope to use the law to reshape the culture in exactly the same way that the law was used to reshape the culture of the old racist south.”

 (Editor’s Note: Maggie Gallagher’s National Organization for Marriage produced and paid for the $1.5 million anti-gay marriage hate ad currently speeding about the Internet.)

Extreme conservative, author, and commentator Maggie Gallagher thinks she’s better than you. She co-wrote the book, The Case for Marriage: Why Married People are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially. That alone should make the hair on your neck stand on end in anger. I think the book should be sub-titled “Nah-nah-nah-na, nah nah” and the cover should have a photo of her with her tongue sticking out at you while she pops balloons with pictures of same-sex couples printed on them. 

Now, I’m all for marriage. Equal marriage. Everyone, regardless of orientation, should be able to marry the person they love. And I don’t begrudge anyone their marriage. Maggie believes in marriage so much, she is the President of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), which describes itself as,

“A nonprofit organization with a mission to protect marriage and the faith communities that sustain it. Founded in response to the growing need for an organized opposition to same-sex marriage in state legislatures, NOM serves as a national resource for marriage-related initiatives at the state and local level. For decades, pro-family organizations have educated the public about the importance of marriage and the family, but have lacked the organized, national presence needed to impact state and local politics in a coordinated and sustained fashion.”

Additionally, 

“Maggie Gallagher is also president of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy (www.iMAPP.org), a nonprofit organization whose unique mission is research and public education on ways that law and public policy can strengthen marriage as a social institution.”

But Maggie only believes in marriage for straight people. And Maggie wants married people to be happier, healthier, and better off financially. Which means she doesn’t want gays to be, and doesn’t believe we can be. Or should be.

Here’s why you need to know all this: First, because I promised last week the start of a new “aspect” to this blog, the “Bigotry Watch”. Welcome to the Bigotry Watch club, Maggie! Second, because Ms. Gallagher saw fit to write this nasty, uninformed, and yes, bigoted post in The National Review Online today. Responding to gay marriage and, specifically, the New York Times op-ed by David Blankenhorn and Jonathan Rauch, about which I’ve been writing a lot today. Here’s what she had to contribute to the discussion:

“From where I stand, it looks like the progressive/democrat position states: If you believe marriage means a husband and wife, you are not just wrong, you are downright wicked and deserve to have your home address put up on the internet so strangers can harass you.”

Really, Maggie? Really? The president of TWO national, pro-heterosexual-marriage non-profits (yes, tax-free!) groups, a conservative author for nineteen years, and that’s all you’ve learned? Wow. Is that the best you can offer, that glib, snarky, and factually inaccurate lie? It’s a lie because you and I both know you don’t even believe it. If you did, there would be no need for your decades-long career of being against same-sex marriage. Your career, I might add, which is primarily based on the ideology of keeping people who love each other apart. (Right now I’m wondering if that was one of the multiple-choice options the high school guidance counselor gave her?)

Now folks, remember our former president Bush? The one who spent hundreds of millions of dollars to “promote” and “protect” marriage? Hundreds of millions of your tax dollars to tell your friends and neighbors that you didn’t deserve your civil rights, well, guess who got some of that cash? Yup: Maggie Gallagher. Via Wikipedia:

“On January 26, 2005, Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post uncovered records of Gallagher receiving payments of tens of thousands of dollars from the Department of Health and Human Services from 2002-2003 for helping the George W. Bush administration promote the President’s “healthy marriage” initiative. During this time, Gallagher testified before Congress repeatedly in favor of “healthy marriage” programs, but never disclosed the payments.”

So, Maggie, to quote a phrase, “From where I stand” it looks like you subscribe to a theory I once heard: “The truth is very valuable. Don’t waste it by using it too often.”

Or, consider this inanity, the veritable “slippery slope” Maggie and her ilk so readily offer as to why gay marriage must be stopped. From her 2008 piece, “Redefinition Revolution: Gay marriage is about more than Adam and Steve“:

“What about polygamy? Is that the natural next step? When people ask me this, my stock answer has become, “I don’t know, go ask the guys in the Harvard Law School faculty lounge.” Because if the California decision stands, there simply is no longer any case to be made we have begun to win the war for judicial restraint. If a court can rule that same-sex marriage is a fundamental right (i.e., one deeply rooted in our nation’s traditions) then it can make up anything. Elite legal minds get to figure out what they think and break it to the rest of us once they’ve decided.”

Gallagher, at one point a single mother, seems to have been Ann Coulter’s coach for her latest book, “Guilty”, on which she (Coulter) blames all the ills of society on single mothers. In this video, Gallagher all but blames gays for the destruction of the family and (as does United Families International president Beverly Rice). the declining birth rate.

There’s one thing Maggie and I do agree. In her “Redefinition” piece, she writes,

“They [gay marriage proponents] hope to use the law to reshape the culture in exactly the same way that the law was used to reshape the culture of the old racist south.” 

You know what Maggie? You’re damn right we do.