When a school learns that one of its alums has achieved great things, the institution will usually seek to promote those accomplishments. But there are exceptions. If it’s discovered, for example, that the former student also happens to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan, or a neo-Nazi, or a convicted felon, then the school will naturally seek to downplay the connection ”” and to sever any explicit ties between them.
To this list of offenses ”” normally reserved only for bigots and criminals ”” we can now apparently add opposing same-sex marriage.
Consider the recent experience of Ryan T. Anderson.
A graduate of the Quaker Friends School of Baltimore, Anderson has achieved far more than most 33-year-olds. He completed his undergraduate education at Princeton and earned a Ph.D. from Notre Dame. He has been cited by a Supreme Court justice (Samuel A. Alito, Jr., in his dissent from the majority opinion in United States v. Windsor, which struck down parts of the Defense of Marriage Act). He was recently named the William E. Simon Senior Research Fellow in American Principles and Public Policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation. And last week he was profiled fairly and respectfully in The Washington Post. (Headline: “The right finds a fresh voice on same-sex marriage.”)
No wonder someone thought it made sense to post a link to the profile on the school’s website.
But then the predictable uproar began. Before long, head of school Matthew W. Micciche had taken down the link and published first a brief and then a lengthier apology for having posted it in the first place. (Both statements were subsequently deleted. The longer one is quoted in its entirety on Anderson’s public Facebook page.)
In his longer apology, Micciche expressed “sincere regret” for his “lack of sensitivity” and the “anguish and confusion” and “pain” the link inflicted on members of the school community who thought the link implied that the school was standing behind Anderson’s views….
As I was taught at graduate school in the ’90s, only white people can be racist, there is no absolute truth, only conservatives (and all conservatives) are fascists…
The Washington Post approvingly trumpets the latest poll showing that “a record number” of Americans support gay marriage.
Well, of course they do, at least when asked the question. They have seen what happens if you say otherwise.
I confess I haven’t had a chance to read this, beyond what Kendall posted above, but Jim’s comment #2 resonated with me and I thought I’d just add something I’ve noticed in recent weeks.
I’ve only been on Twitter since late September, but even in just those 6 – 7 months, I’ve noticed an incredible ramping up of quite an aggressive PUSH re: normalization of gay marriage etc. In the last month especially, I’ve been quite shocked at the constant drumbeat of stories promoting gay marriage and LGBT rights by two sources / Twitter accounts I had previously highly respected.
1) Religion News Service (RNS)
https://twitter.com/RNS
2) Alert Net (a news service which provides updates to humanitarian crises which I started following especially to monitor the Ebola situation)
https://twitter.com/AlertNet
If you go back and look at their Tweets over the past few weeks, you will see a lot of repetitive tweets pushing pro-LGBT stories. It has really felt like a concerted propaganda campaign, not just normal reporting. I think I read at IRD or somewhere that in fact RNS received funding to report on gay friendly issues…
A quick PS: let me rephrase what I wrote about AlertNet, because in the past 2 weeks since Easter, their tweets have been better. News from Yemen, and the migrant crisis and drownings in the Mediterranean have dominated their Tweets. So what I’m talking about won’t be so evident or obvious.
I think it was during Holy Week that my Twitter timeline was innundated with rainbow flag tweets from them and I found it quite offensive. I’ll try to see if I can find examples of the tweets in question.
Here are some of the AlertNet Tweets in question. What made them stand out so much to me is that they were so obviously different from their normal Tweets about natural disasters & humanitarian crises. This was pure ADVOCACY not related to any immediate crisis. It was notably odd.
Here are some tweets from Apr 7 – 9. There were many more than this either just before or just after Easter with pictures of rainbow flags constantly in my face in my Twitter Feed. Note, in searching for these, I notice they all seem to link / originate from / be retweeted by http://www.trust.org and the TR Foundation @TR_Foundation and TrustLaw Women â€@trustlaw_women. Might be something for someone to research. What are these organizations & foundations… Follow the money….
https://twitter.com/AlertNet/status/586159833579184128
https://twitter.com/AlertNet/status/586134507314618368
https://twitter.com/AlertNet/status/586083022929321984
https://twitter.com/AlertNet/status/586077902241923073
https://twitter.com/AlertNet/status/585960441710571521
https://twitter.com/AlertNet/status/585805365939458048
https://twitter.com/AlertNet/status/585798506377568257
https://twitter.com/AlertNet/status/585741589596786689
https://twitter.com/AlertNet/status/585715445543661569
https://twitter.com/AlertNet/status/585621614831640577
https://twitter.com/AlertNet/status/585604346412462081
https://twitter.com/AlertNet/status/585457127889731584
https://twitter.com/AlertNet/status/585240419455348736
and a few more
https://twitter.com/AlertNet/status/582873598064373761
https://twitter.com/AlertNet/status/589145031258337280
https://twitter.com/MariaCaspani85/status/590957847011287040 (RTed by AlertNet)
As for the timing of why it is being ramped up now, it is because the oral arguments on same-sex marriage as a constitutional right are coming up in front of the Supreme Court next Tuesday. The proponents are trying to create as big a record as they can that the “public” is in favor of same-sex marriage. And that the Supreme Court would face increasing opprobrium if they don’t do what the “public” wants. Of course, that is not how the court system is supposed to work, but since the Obamacare decision it has been pretty clear the court is more concerned about the public reaction to their decisions than whether the decision is supported by law or not.
The other big assault of course has been on religious freedom bills. The success in killing those and threats of boycotts have also created a substantial chilling effect on anyone opposing same-sex marriage.
Ah, sorry, here’s a MUCH easier way to see what I’m talking about:
This link shows a Twitter search I did for “@AlertNet #LGBT” – you can see a bunch of their tweets at one glance.
[b][i]Elves update:[/b] There are link problems – here’s a shortened link that works[/i]
http://tinyurl.com/o2njh6j
You can see that in the fall they were doing maybe 7 – 10 tweets per month on LGBT themes, but in Easter week, it was like 5 – 7 tweets per day. Not all show up here because not all were tagged #LGBT. some were tagged equality or transgender or stuff like that. UGH