Now the war continues in the House. This is the July Rove strategy I predicted – to gay-bait to rally the right-wing base, and to purge the Republican leadership of any tolerance of gay relationships. They don’t believe the FMA will pass, they know that it’s unnecessary, but they need to use it now to blunt the Kerry advance. Meanwhile, another low blow from Maggie Gallagher, whose latest column takes a single anecdote of one child of a gay couple and argues that the debate is therefore over. Money quote:
Cassidy’s story is not science. It’s just her own feelings. Many researchers say most kids do just fine in these alternative family forms. Cassidy doesn’t buy that research, though. “I don’t think a fair study could be conducted because children currently in that family wouldn’t necessarily be open to speaking their true feelings about it.”
Oh, so that settles it. You don’t need science or research, you just need one anecdote! Don’t you think, for example, that you could find a child of a mixed race couple who feels and felt socially isolated in childhood or the object of peer pressure as a kid? Would that make a mixed-race marriage a “selfish” proposition for two adults in love? Yes, that was exactly the argument used in the 1950s and 1960s against inter-racial marriage: think of what it does to the kids. Blogger KipEsquire also weighs in.
The Dish 