Newsweek makes "The Religious Case for Gay Marriage"...and the right tries to drown them in e-mail

[thatcrazycajun]

Courtesy of the Human Rights Campaign, I was just notified of a momentous new cover story in the latest issue of Newsweek: "The Religious Case for Gay Marriage." And of the entirely predictable reaction to such a story from the forces of the Religious Right Wrong: unbridled fury and denial-of-service attacks.

The article argues that, far from condemning and forbidding homosexual unions as the fundies have long claimed, there is considerable material in the Western world's most popular holy book (or work of literature, depending on your viewpoint) to support them. (A Ph.D. in the subject local to my neck of the woods, Dan Helminiak, has already tackled this line of debate in much more detail with his book, What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality.) The magazine's religion editor Lisa Miller, the article's author, reported on XM Satellite Radio that literally within hours of the thing hitting the newsstands, "over 20,000" e-mails were sent by right-wingers denouncing the article. (Yes, I know, at least some of them had to be actual readers, to be sure; but with this large, quick and vitriolic a response, I strongly smell the hand of activist groups such as Focus on the Family or California's "Yes on 8" people back of this.)

The HRC folks have decided that, in this time when the cause of equality before the law for persons of minority sexuality has suffered at least one severe body-blow (Proposition 8's passage in CA last month) and the President-elect its members helped elect has publicly said he thinks marriage should be exclusively for heterosexuals, the tsunami of rage inundating Katharine Graham's pressies needs urgently to be countered by a like number of supportive messages, if not a larger number. And they've provided this handy-dandy online form to allow anyone, whether a member of HRC or not, to do so.

If you consider yourself a friend of mine, I'd take it as a personal favor if you'd join me in letting Ms. Miller and her Newsweek confreres know that not everybody is pissed off at them for this article. There's no charge, registration or fee involved, nor any requirement to donate or join HRC. We need to support this kind of truth-telling in the national media...and the Scudderites need to be told they cannot intimidate the press with impunity.

Comments

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

Done. Thank you for the resource.

H.R.C.

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

Don't work for me.

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

they *do* insist on collecting one's contact information, though, so they can bother you with spam and junk mail. If you can find a link to comment to Newsweek without signing up for such stuff, I'll send encouragement.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

If you're that worried about giving them first name, last name and e-mail address (the latter is simply to verify that you are a real person and not a spoofer), you can always use the e-mail address given in Newsweek's letters section, letters@newsweek.com.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Did this.

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

It's not that I object to proving I'm not a machine, it's that the verbiage specifically states they are collecting this info "so they can send me updates".

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this.

Due to the high volume of traffic, we have had to temporarily suspend the comments function on this story. We regret the inconvenience, and will have it restored as soon as possible. Thank you for reading. To read feedback, head to NEWSWEEK's Readback blog.

I just read the article and am heading for the letterbox address that you gave.

(Edit:)
And I've just copied your blog entry to my synagogue's discussion email list, like this:

----------------

A friend of mine just wrote in his blog:
     [full quote of entry]
At the end of the article is a note:
     Due to[...]
The link for the blog doesn't work, and there's more than enough to disgust me in the comments that are already there. I wrote directly to the letters section, letters@newsweek.com.

Oh, they seem to have restored the comments. I posted mine. (You need to be registered with them, which I already am.)

[ericavdg.livejournal.com]

I am so tired of little quotes from the Jewish Book of Fairy Tales being used to suppress minorities, when many other quotes are ignored. How many of these so-called religious right folks eat pork? Shave? Purify themselves in a ritual bath after their menstrual period? It's all or nothing, folks, if you're going to be literalists.

[sdelmonte]

I abide by those laws, being a religious Jew. And I support the legalization of gay marriage.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Done:

Thank you for your excellent coverage of marriage equality for same-sex couples in the current issue of Newsweek. Misconceptions abound among its opponents, so it's good to see the Bible cited in support of loving, committed LGBT people who want to marry. Discriminating against those who simply want what everyone does -- to legally express their commitment to their love and build a life together -- is hateful, nasty, and clearly against all the Biblical principles of love and tolerance as expressed by its great figures.

Thank you also for pointing out in your articles and your poll that a large and increasing number of Americans recognize that these couples deserve equal rights with their straight peers with regard to marriage. Regardless of where each of us stand on the spectrum of our own religious beliefs, the Golden Rule of treating others as we'd want to be treated both applies and is paramount.

Please don't permit the inevitable cacophony of opposed voices convince you that you were wrong to run these articles. Rather, they are the last desperate cries of a movement to privilege one group over all others, and finding that social advantage already deeply wounded, see in this new extension of equal rights their worst nightmare: a level playing field.

Let's hope enough voices are raised in support of human rights to counter that vocal minority of bigots who now hold the media's attention.

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Done.