On Friday the Maryland Marriage Alliance, a coalition of anti-equality religious conservatives working to prevent the passage of Question 6, which would allow the state’s marriage equality law to take effect, held a “town hall meeting” on marriage. (This political event was held in Baltimore’s Manna Bible Baptist Church, so it may not even have been legal, but that’s another story.)
And look who blogger extraordinaire Jeremy Hooper discovered on the official panel: none other than Greg Quinlan, president of Parents & Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX).
Quinlan is in rare form. After he’s introduced at the 9:15 mark, Quinlan proclaims himself to be “ex-gay,” then compliments himself for looking three decades younger than his 54 years and jokes that his “chemically-dependent” hair needs to be fixed right now. After that merry romp through the garden of gay stereotypes, Quinlan trots out his usual routine wherein he claims that abuse and sexual molestation made him gay but that Jesus brought him out of “the lifestyle.” He then claims that gays and lesbians are innately sick, alleges the existence of “thousands upon thousands of ex-gays” despite the fact that even Exodus’s Alan Chambers now admits that “ex-gay” programs don’t work, smears Ellen DeGeneres as “Ellen DeGenerate” (48:10), and patronizingly panders to the African Americans in the crowd by adopting a stereotypically black speech cadence. Watch it below; it’s quite the performance.
Quinlan’s presence on an official Maryland Marriage Alliance panel — he’s seated just two chairs away from Maryland Marriage Alliance Executive Director Derek McCoy — is significant because it represents the group’s tacit endorsement of the “pray away the gay” fraud. By embracing the utterly discredited myth that gays and lesbians can (and should) change their sexual orientation, the Maryland Marriage Alliance is showing its true colors and revealing that its real motivation is not the “protection of marriage,” but pure, unadulterated homophobic bigotry. And as I said when we found out about the involvement of “ex-gays” in the push for marriage discrimination in Minnesota, it also shows that they won’t be satisfied with merely preventing same-sex couples from being able to marry. Rather, their goal is the relegation of LGBT people to second-class status in every aspect of society.
Hooper also points out something that’s even more disturbing: on two separate occasions (the first time at the 37:50 mark in the video above, the second time in the video below at around 3:20), the speaker seated immediately to McCoy’s left — identified by Zack Ford at ThinkProgress as Pastor Robert Anderson — says that homosexuality leads to death. In the first clip, this “pastor” even claims that gays and lesbians — and our straight allies — “are deserving of death:”
The Scriptures in Leviticus 18:22 — you know what that says: that a man is not to lay down with another man. If they do that, it’s an abomination. But there is one verse I really wanted to drive home and then I’ll stop. But that’s in Romans Chapter 1, and it’s the very last verse; as you know, Paul addresses this. Listen to the last verse: “Knowing the righteous judgment of God that those who practice such things are deserving of death. Not only do the same” — but watch this — “for those who also approve of those who practice these things.”
If we don’t vote against it, then we are approving these things that are worthy of death.”
That’s right. The Maryland Marriage Alliance is going far beyond mere political campaigning here — their extremist rhetoric puts them in the company of notorious anti-gay extremists like Archbishop John Nienstedt, Australian Salvation Army Major Andrew Craibe, and the Westboro Baptist Church.
Watch the second video below.
These videos from the Maryland Marriage Alliance make one thing abundantly clear: a vote against Question 6, in support of MMA’s agenda, is a vote of support for the belief that those who favor LGBT equality deserve death. Marylanders would do well to remember that when they go to the polls next month.
