Talking Points: What the Radical Right Says About Us You can learn the radical right's true intentions by reading what they say about us. Whatever they try to say about traditional marriage, their true motivation is trying to marginalize gay and lesbian Americans. Their own words, based on fear and intolerance, reveal their true motives. "The future of our country hangs in the balance because the future of marriage hangs in the balance. Isn't that the ultimate homeland security—standing up and defending marriage?"—Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), July 2004 during U.S. Senate debate on the anti-family Federal Marriage Amendment. "I really believe that the Pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and lesbians, ... the ACLU, People For the American Way - all of them who have tried to secularize America - I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this [terrorist attack] happen."—Jerry Falwell, 700 Club, September 13, 2001 "There is a master plan out there from those who want to destroy the institution of marriage."—Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO) during U.S. Senate debate on the anti-family Federal Marriage Amendment. "Barring a miracle, the family as it has been known for more than five millennia will crumble, presaging the fall of Western civilization itself."—James Dobson, Focus on the Family, in a 2004 anti-gay fund raising letter "If you still think homosexual 'marriage' won't affect you, think again. Your job may be at stake!...Once the state approves of homosexual 'marriages,' the full weight of the law will be brought down against men and women of faith who believe in Judeo-Christian values."—Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families in a letter to supporters. "It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries a box turtle. But that does not mean it is right.... Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife."—Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), July 2004, during U.S. Senate debate on the anti-family Federal Marriage Amendment "For the sake of our children and society, we must OPPOSE the spread of homosexual activity! Just as we must oppose murder, stealing, and adultery! Since homosexuals cannot reproduce, the only way for them to 'breed' is to RECRUIT! And who are their targets for recruitment? Children!"—Don Wildmon, direct mail letter from the American Family Association "If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything," Santorum said in an interview published April 21, 2003 by the Associated Press. "All of those things are antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family," Santorum continued. "And that's sort of where we are in today's world, unfortunately. It all comes from, I would argue, this right to privacy that doesn't exist, in my opinion, in the United States Constitution."—Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), April 21, 2003, AP interview. "The family unit is under attack by dark and conspiring forces who desire to redefine the bond of marriage to include same-sex partners. This design is an abomination of nature and, if adopted by society as normative, will ultimately lead to society's downfall and destruction."—American Society for the Preservation of the Family "'Gay' activists are like a freight train out of control, running over everyone and anyone in their paths, desperately seeking and desiring one thing: acceptance of their sin."—American Family Association, The Deception and Desensitization of America's Youth, February 20, 2003 "After all, since homosexual couples can't reproduce, they will simply go after your children for seduction and conversion to homosexuality."—Rev. Lou Sheldon, Traditional Values Coalition, from report Homosexuals Recruit Public School Children "Homosexuals are not monogamous. They want to destroy the institution of marriage. It (same-sex marriage) will destroy marriage. It will destroy the Earth."—James Dobson, Focus on the Family, October 2004 speaking at a rally for OK GOP Senate candidate Tom Coburn "I'm trying to find the correct name for it ... this utter absolute, asinine, idiotic stupidity of men marrying men. ... I've never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry. And I'm gonna be blunt and plain; if one ever looks at me like that, I'm gonna kill him and tell God he died."—Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart—in a September 2004 television broadcast. |
