"Protect Marriage" Guy to Testify Tomorrow
Amanda Hess has a story at TBD about Robert Broadus, the man who is leading the fight against marriage equality in Maryland. He's going to testify in the Maryland state Senate tomorrow.
I suppose there is some little irony in a black guy saying "some of my best friends are gay" as proof that he's not prejudiced or anything. Maybe his generation (he's in his thirties) just hasn't been exposed to some of the cliches.
There is also irony in the fact that the writer doesn't even have to say anything about this man's sad comments. Simply repeating his statements in print frames the irony in an obvious way. If you claimed to agree with him, your agreement would be taken as satire, like if you quoted the political philosophy of Beavis and Butthead. Like, gay people are so powerful now, they're just about running things, ya know? And they're always stomping on everybody else's religious rights, y'know, going around being gay and everything as if there was nothing wrong with it.
This guy Broadus is a piece of work. Oliver Willis had a blog post in 2009 entitled Robert Broadus Is Whats Wrong With America that explains who Broadus is in, let's say, undiluted terms.
The address given for Protect Marriage Maryland on their web site is Broadus' (a single father of two, how's that for protecting marriage!) house in Clinton.
There is something wrong when a handful of losers like Broadus can prevent real people from fulfilling their lives' dreams of marrying and having a family. I think this is the year that Maryland will turn the corner on marriage equality and pass a good, solid bill giving full equal rights to same-sex couples. If Robert Broadus testifies conspicuously and answers a lot of questions about his beliefs this goal will only be attained faster.
The man leading the charge against same-sex marriage in Maryland wants you to know that his opposition to gays comes from a place of tolerance. "I'm not a person who hates other people," says Broadus, head of the newly-formed Protect Marriage Maryland, a group bent on preventing the passage of gay marriage in the state. "I've known plenty of gay people. I've hung out with gay people. I've been hit on by gay people," Broadus says. "I don’t turn around and punch them. In school, if I saw the gay kid getting picked on, I stood up for the gay kid and tried to stop it."
"The problem," Broadus explains, "is that they have gained so much power at this point in time."
Broadus' objection to gays begins when "they start wanting to stomp on the religious rights of other people," when "they want to tell me that everything in my Bible is false," he says. Broadus, a lifetime area resident and former Congressional candidate from Maryland, describes himself as "just a very concerned citizen" who worries that gay marriage in Maryland could intrude on his (tolerant) views of homosexuality. "I'm a person of faith. I was raised going to church every Sunday, listening to sermons, preachers, and learning from my family," Broadus says. "Homosexuality was not the norm. Gay was not what a respectable person would grow up to be." Protect Marriage Maryland tolerates gays, as long as they don't have "too much power"
I suppose there is some little irony in a black guy saying "some of my best friends are gay" as proof that he's not prejudiced or anything. Maybe his generation (he's in his thirties) just hasn't been exposed to some of the cliches.
There is also irony in the fact that the writer doesn't even have to say anything about this man's sad comments. Simply repeating his statements in print frames the irony in an obvious way. If you claimed to agree with him, your agreement would be taken as satire, like if you quoted the political philosophy of Beavis and Butthead. Like, gay people are so powerful now, they're just about running things, ya know? And they're always stomping on everybody else's religious rights, y'know, going around being gay and everything as if there was nothing wrong with it.
Tomorrow, Broadus plans to air those views at a state Senate hearing on the gay marriage bill, where he will question the litigation's commitment to "religious freedom." "Being a Catholic and dealing with the Catholic church, we're concerned about religious liberties," Broadus says. "The law is written in such a way that a priest won’t have to perform gay marriages. But of course, the priest is not the only person involved in marriage. There are plenty of people involved in the marriage industry who are against gay marriage: Chauffeurs, caterers, florists, lawyers, photographers. All these people will be completely unprotected."
Since joining the anti-gay-marriage fight, Broadus says that his tolerance of gays has been tested. He points to the comments on a YouTube video he recorded last month as confirmation that gay rights in Maryland constitute a concerted attack people like him. "They're saying that I'm just eating fried chicken and waiting for my welfare check," Broadus says. "The hatred they have, and they're asking me for tolerance? It's like, wow. It’s like the whole world’s been turned upside down."
This guy Broadus is a piece of work. Oliver Willis had a blog post in 2009 entitled Robert Broadus Is Whats Wrong With America that explains who Broadus is in, let's say, undiluted terms.
The address given for Protect Marriage Maryland on their web site is Broadus' (a single father of two, how's that for protecting marriage!) house in Clinton.
There is something wrong when a handful of losers like Broadus can prevent real people from fulfilling their lives' dreams of marrying and having a family. I think this is the year that Maryland will turn the corner on marriage equality and pass a good, solid bill giving full equal rights to same-sex couples. If Robert Broadus testifies conspicuously and answers a lot of questions about his beliefs this goal will only be attained faster.
posted by JimK at 1:04 PM
11 Comments:
I hope they do pass it.
It will do more for Republicans in MD than anything has in years.
It will wake up the democrats who claims to be conservative, and finally and truly convince them that there is no such thing as a conversative democrat.
"There is something wrong when a handful of losers like Broadus can prevent real people from fulfilling their lives' dreams of marrying and having a family. I think this is the year that Maryland will turn the corner on marriage equality and pass a good, solid bill giving full equal rights to same-sex couples."
Maybe it will.
Then, next year will be the year some real people can fulfill their lives' dreams of marrying a billy goat.
We can turn the corner with a good solid bill outlawing discrimination against inter-species attraction.
Barry has learned the error of his ways and is now trying to make up for his bad behavior
he got a good start by supporting tax cuts for the super-rich
now, he's gone over to apologize to business leaders
"President Obama reached out to the U.S. business community on Monday in a speech where he promised to make sales calls for American products and cut burdensome regulations.
The speech is part of the Obama's attempt to demonstrate that he is no longer anti-business. It also sets a apolgetic tone as he sends his budget to a common sense, GOP controlled House next week.
Obama walked the block from the White House to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce headquarters -- a building he can easily see from the White House residence -- flanked by his two top ambassadors to corporate America: senior advisor Valerie Jarrett, and Chief of Staff Bill Daley, who, as a top executive at banking giant J. P. Morgan Chase worked closely with the Chamber.
Explained Obama to the Chamber audience -- noting the Chamber is his neighbor -- "we should have brought over a fruitcake when I first moved in, we would have gotten off to a better start."
The Chamber is a major player, being a major funder of Republican candidates and causes. According to the non-partisan Sunlight Foundation, the Chamber spent $32.15 million in the 2010 mid-term election cycle, most going to GOP candidates -- the biggest source of non-party campaign cash.
I bet the first three anonymoi have many gay friends.
One of my friends is radically conservative.
"American women are generally immature, selfish, extremely arrogant and self-centered, mentally unstable, irresponsible, and highly unchaste. The behavior of most American women is utterly disgusting, to say the least."
That's a quote from an American man, born of an American mother, who carefully hides his identity to spout his Americanwomanphobia, demonstrating without a doubt he's an American male chickenshit.
he's gone over to apologize to business leaders
Is that what they told you on Fox News? Here's the text of President Obama's speech to the US Chamber of Commerce yesterday. Let's see your cut and pastes of what you imagine are apologies offered to business leaders.
Well, I read the first three paragraphs and found this of Obama apologizing for not coming to the chamber before:
"I’m here in the interest of being more neighborly. (Laughter.) I strolled over from across the street, and look, maybe if we had brought over a fruitcake when I first moved in, we would have gotten off to a better start. (Laughter.) But I’m going to make up for it."
yeah, he's trying to make light of it but, basically, he's apologizing for poor behavior
we'll give him the benefit of the doubt and just say he has experienced a maturing process
we were all once immature, even it takes some longer than others to learn some manners
he just better not be rude to business leaders again or we'll be forced to impeach him
Let's just say he's benign and is giving the greedy bastards at the Chamber of Commerce another chance to do what's right for America instead of lining their own pockets.
Bush Finally Agrees to Attend NAACP Meeting
By Eugene McCormick
07/19/2006 - 10:33am
After years of contention President Bush has agreed to speak at the NAACP convention in Washington DC. Until he agreed to meet he was the first sitting President not to meet with the group since Warren Harding. The rift was believed to be behind an ad that the NAACP had run before the 2000 election that portrayed Bush, then Governer of Texas, unsympathetic to the murder of James Byrd who was dragged by a car in a racial attack. Bush recieved about 10% of the African American vote in 2004.
sounds like Bush had a legitimate gripe against the group
he's very magnanimous to speak to this archaic and increasingly irrelevant association
Post a Comment
<< Home