No Shelter In This Storm

Could homophobes be gasping their last breath?

If patriotism is the refuge of the scoundrel, then desperation may be the last refuge of the bigot. Case in point: This group named National Organization For Marriage has made a video clip posted on YouTube called “The Gathering Storm”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp76ly2_NoI

There is a multiracial group of people, all with forlorn faces, standing in front of a background of dark clouds and lightning bolts as an ominous piano bangs away. Essentially it’s a 60-second ad that sees homosexuality and gay marriage as a threat to American life just like, you know, terrorism. Several individuals each provide their biggest fear in succession:

“The winds are strong and I am afraid.”

“My freedom will be taken away.”

“I’m a California doctor who must choose between my faith and my job.”

“I am part of a New Jersey church group punished by the government because we can’t support same sex marriage.”

“I’m a Massachusetts parent helplessly watching public schools teach my son gay marriage is okay.”

“The advocates want to change the way I live.”

But then, lo and behold, the clouds dissipate as a man vows that a “rainbow coalition” (an ironic nod to Jesse Jackson or gay people?) of folks are coming together to do something about the problem. One of my biggest shocks was finding out this ad was produced and broadcast for $1.5 million, when it looks like a parody Saturday Night Live would air in its last half-hour.

This sketchy group, formed in 2007, is really a fund-raising and propaganda-spewing Web site fronted by the right-wing Princeton University professor Robert George and the columnist Maggie Gallagher, who was an architect of President Bush’s abstinence-only marriage initiatives.

The response has been swift … by people who think this ad is a total joke. First, there is a funny parody, also on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0pPEAdDn64. On Stephen Colbert’s show, a clip shows lightning from “the homo storm” striking an Arkansas teacher, turning him gay. A “New Jersey pastor” whose church has been “turned into an Abercrombie & Fitch” declares that he likes gay people, “but only as hilarious best friends in TV and movies.”

What struck me most was that this seems to be the conservative’s right most prominent response to the gay marriage victories in Iowa and Vermont. But fewer people are buying this tripe. Media stories with evangelicals decrying the marriage victories as a moral apocalypse have been scarce.

Are the homophobes losing their touch? Even Miss California’s fumbling response to gay marriage in the Miss America contest – remember how she said she had to be “Biblically correct” and declare marriage is between a man and a woman only – earned her some audience boos and public derision.

Suddenly, it seems kind of ridiculous to decry gays and gay marriage. The problem is the homophobes can never really explain what the threat is and how it will manifest. Remember when they said we were coming after their children? Didn’t happen. Well, supposedly gay marriage will destroy the family and the institution of marriage. But how? They never really say but just know it will. Sorry, but my mother was the only one in my life with whom I tolerated an answer of “Because I said so.” And that hasn’t worked in 20 years.

So this empty mantra of threat gets repeated without discerning the how and why. And, despite an ever-present homophobia in this society, the logic behind that homophobia is falling away quickly. So becoming an anti-gay spokesperson is losing its luster and effectiveness. I think some of these conservatives are seeing they have little to argue against – or for. Punchy quotes only get you so far.

Look no further than Dr. Laura – she of former “gayness as a biological error and gateway to pedophilia” thinking – recently declared on Larry King committed gay relationships as “a beautiful thing and a healthy thing.” Yes, they are and just as valid as straight relationships.

If only the National Organization For Marriage used that money for something more useful, like a donation to a food bank. Their side show is playing to smaller capacity crowds these days.