Dear Maggie, stop the bullying
October 25, 2010
By Cameron Tolle, Freedom to Marry's Online Organizer
Just when you think it can’t get worse, Maggie Gallagher one-ups herself.
Maggie, former president of NOM and a leading anti-gay figure, has made a career out of advocating for discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans. In state after state, she has campaigned with NOM and other anti-gay activists promoting the message that being gay is a “dysfunction” that people need to work to “overcome.”
It doesn’t take much thought to connect the dots between the anti-gay rhetoric promoted by Maggie and others like Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council and Brian Brown, current president of NOM and the feelings of isolation and marginalization experienced by many LGBT people, particularly youth. And in light of recent anti-gay bullying and tragic suicides, the severe damage they have caused has never been clearer.
That’s why when Maggie used a New York Post column to try to claim that her relentless campaigning against LGBT people has not contributed to a toxic climate that gives others permission to look down on LGBT people, we couldn’t believe it.
After multiple anti-gay organizations, including Maggie’s own group NOM, have spent years and millions of dollars promoting discrimination and the message that gay people are “immoral” and “depraved” in our political culture, how can she now deny her undeniable contribution to anti-gay sentiments?
That’s simple. She can’t. But, she’ll try again to distract from the impact her words and actions are having on young people, gay and straight.
In her column, Maggie says, “These kids need help, real help. They should not become a mere rhetorical strategy, a plaything in our adult battles.” We couldn’t agree more, Maggie.
Yet each time she calls for discrimination against LGBT people by saying she’s just trying to “protect the children,” Maggie does exactly that: uses kids as “a mere rhetorical strategy” in her “adult battle” to exclude gay and lesbian families from marriage.
And that’s why we’re calling on Maggie to end her campaign against LGBT people and to join the growing majority of Americans . Maggie’s lies cause real harm in the lives of real American families, and it’s time for her to stop.
Join us in telling Maggie that enough is enough by signing our open letter calling on her to end her attacks against LGBT people and their families.
Stand with us and tell Maggie that enough is enough.