As BarbinMD wrote about earlier today, the National Organization for Marriage (how's that for an Orwellian title?!) has put out a creepy new ad titled "the storm is coming". It's more than just an attack on marriage equality and human rights, it's a sick but effective way to let conservatives cast themselves as the victims, thereby silencing the actual people THEY are victimizing.
Here's the ad:
And, amusingly enough, here's what looks to be the audition reel for this ad - good to see that these actors really care passionately about the tripe they're selling:
All kidding aside, this is how they get voters in a supposedly tolerant state like California to vote to take away rights from people without making themselves look like hateful bigots in the process.
One of the most powerful weapons in the Yes on Prop 8 campaign's arsenal was the argument that same-sex marriage rights would somehow limit religious or parental freedoms. The No on 8 campaign never effectively countered this, and this conservative victimology helped insulate Prop 8 supporters from being called to account for their bigotry.
As the marriage equality movement racks up victory after victory - Iowa, Vermont, and soon New Hampshire - the opponents of equal rights are plotting their counterattack. The ad is going up on the airwaves across America - eight times a day here in California - as NOM seeks to build what they are calling a "rainbow coalition" against equality.
Their arguments are based on lies, and always have been - marriage equality in California wouldn't have changed how preachers preach or how teachers teach, and Vermont's new marriage law makes clear that religious freedom is still respected. Jeremy at Good As You has a great reply to the NOM ad's lies:
Still, their arguments are also powerful. Conservative victimology has been one of the key methods by which Prop 8 supporters have escaped responsibility for their actions or even acknowledging what Prop 8 was - an attack on the legal equality of thousands of Californians merely for their sexual orientation.
When framed this way the anti-marriage position becomes almost unassailable, immune to criticism. "They're just protecting their freedoms," we're supposed to think, and not be allowed to ask them to face the realities of what they have done, not be allowed to criticize them for voting to take away equal rights and destroy existing marriages, and not be allowed to act with our own conscience by demanding equal rights for everyone. Each of those acts is cast as an aggressive and hurtful act, where the oppressed are cast as oppressors.
The real victims, of course, are those loving couples who are denied fundamental rights merely because of their sexual orientation. How do we stand up for their rights? How do we stand up to these merchants of hate? How do we counteract the effect of these ads?
By organizing, that's how.
Here in California marriage equality activists - people from a variety of backgrounds, people of different sexual orientations, ages, communities and classes - are beginning the long, hard, and necessary work of building networks in every part of California, from Fresno to Fullerton, San Diego to San Francisco, to start telling a different story. A more truthful story.
I have the privilege to be helping in that effort through my work at the Courage Campaign. We've been holding activist trainings around the state modeled on Camp Obama - we call it Camp Courage - to build the army to reverse the passage of Proposition 8 and to tell Californians that what groups like NOM are saying in these ads just isn't true.
While NOM's TV ad uses actors to portray false victims, Camp Courage is mobilizing real people to speak from their heart, door-to-door across California.
Modeled on the "Camp Obama" training events that helped propel President Obama into the White House, Camp Courage uses the "Story of Self" to transform personal experiences -- each participant's unique inspiration for supporting marriage equality -- into compelling and authentic narratives that can persuade undecided voters.
Here's what Sara P., a participant, said about Camp Courage Los Angeles:
"At any time throughout the day I could look around the room and see a smile on someone's face, a tear running down their cheek, and the wheels turning in their head. Every moment, you could look to your left and look to your right and know that you were sitting next to a fellow soldier, someone that will be, or is, in the trenches with you fighting in the name of justice. How powerful is that?"
It's through that kind of work that we will start pushing back the lies. That's how you turn fear into hope. The wingnuts want us to watch their crazy ads and be filled with fear. Instead we have to be filled with outrage and hope - the ingredients that will mobilize us to organize against the lies.
In response to the ad, the Dolby Family of Southern California feels it's time to step up and fight back. They are challenging our community to raise $25,000 as a matching grant to fund Camp Courage trainings for marriage equality activists. If you want to help us meet the match, click here or click the image at right.
What we learned last fall is that to defeat these kind of lies and distortions, it's not enough to blog about them or sponsor TV ads debunking them, valuable as they both are. We have to go door to door, put actual LGBT couples and their allies in touch with swing voters in California and explain that their marriage rights don't limit anyone else's freedoms or rights.
It may well be that with the passage of time we will have a majority for marriage equality. But nothing in history happens by accident or by fate. Change happens because we organize to make it happen. That's what the Courage Campaign is doing.
Will you help?
Update [2009-4-8 23:5:40 by eugene]: Here's one of the ways we pushed back against these kind of lies. The Courage Campaign produced this video a few weeks back, a more affirmative and direct message that shows what - and who - this is really about.
Hint: it's not about whiny conservatives.
"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.