Anti-gay marriage lies
Protect Marriage Washington, an anti-gay rights group organized in response to a referendum recognizing civil unions and all that they imply for gay couples, has released a commercial that I found pretty interesting. In particular, this part:
"In May of 2004, Gay marriage was legalized in Scandinavia...
What Happened..? Did you know... That year alone suicide rates doubled. The illegal drug rate increased 19 times. And to say the least the traditional picture of Marriage being One Man One Women was completely shattered. What about our country? Did you know..77% of ALL aids cases in the United States are related to homosexuality? Also, recent news reports indicate that the legalization of gay marriage will start a movement that will result in YOUR CHILDREN being taught about gay marriage as a normal form of life. Are we willing to let this happen? Whose future is really at stake?"
First off, I guess they don't know that Scandinavia isn't a country. In fact, Denmark, Sweden and Norway legalized same-sex partnerships in 1989, 1993 and 1994, respectively, but partners are still unable to marry in a church or adopt children. I can't find any evidence that anything happened in May 2004 in any Scandinavian country regarding gay marriage. So far, we have shot down two of the three points about the state of Scandinavia these days. Here's another: the research I have found indicates that suicide rates in all three countries have gone down in the last decade. So gay couples having legal partnerships (not even marriages) couldn't be the cause for a so-called increase in suicide by any stretch of the imagination.
Now, as for the fact about AIDS cases in the US, their numbers are pretty old. The statistics for 2007 indicate that AIDS cases related to homosexuality are more like 50%. So...I don't even know.
Lastly, I really don't think gay marriage will be taught in school as a normal form of life. In fact, I don't remember a whole lot about being "taught" about any form of marriage or relationship. I do know that I and some of my friends were either children of divorced parents or unmarried parents. At no point did any teacher sit all of us down and teach us about how it's perfectly fine to get divorced or have children out of wedlock. And trust me, never once did I hear an elementary school teacher even say the words "gay" or "lesbian". So it would follow that gay marriage would not be part of the public school curriculum, right?
And how can a "news report" indicate future trends? It's the news. It's not science, it's reporting things that happened and are currently happening.
I don't know if I can change anyone's mind about gay marriage. It's not really what I'm intending. I just want all of you to know when someone is spreading false information about it. In my opinion, it takes a special kind of hate to make up horrible statistics simply to deny consenting adults to marry other consenting adults, and it would be pretty pathetic if my marriage prospects hinged on that.
