Popular Culture Review Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring 2005 | Page 59

Out of Focus on the Family
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as gay marriage sank into the subtle background
consciousness of a culture, its influence would be felt quietly
but deeply among gay children. For then, at last, there would
be some kind of fixture; some older faces to apply to then-
unfolding lives, some language in which their identity could
properly be discussed, some rubric by which it could be
explained—not in terms of sex, or sexual practices, or bars, or
subterranean activity, but in terms of their future life stories,
their potential loves, their eventual chance at some kind of
constructive happiness. (Sullivan, 184)
As Andrew Sullivan noted, the battle for marriage equality “is not for political
victory but for personal integrity” (186).
The second reference listed in Dr. Dobson’s citation—Bell, Weinberg
and Hammersmith, Sexual Preference (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University
Press, 1981)—is most perplexing since a theme in the book is “Sexual
orientation, whether it be heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual, does not appear
to be something that one chooses. Recent studies suggest that sexual orientation
has a genetic or biological component, and is probably determined before or
shortly after birth.” This, of course, is all the more reason to destigmatize
homosexuality by legalizing same-sex marriage.
Despite the statistics he ignored in the table cited above, despite the
stable family statistics evidenced in Massachusetts on May 17, 2004, and despite
citing a study that argues against his prohibitionist position, the founder of
Focus on the Family continues to explain his “reason” with another attempt at
folksy wit:
It [the alleged coming and going of homosexual partners] is
devastating to kids, who by their nature are enormously
conservative creatures. They like things to stay just the way
they are, and they hate change. Some have been known to eat
the same brand of peanut butter throughout childhood. (54).
Of course children want stability and their parents to remain together,
but Dr. Dobson is not campaigning to make divorce illegal (as mandated in
Deut. 22:19 and Mark 10:9), just against homosexuals who want to marry and
create families and those who have already created viable, functional, loving
families despite the obstacles placed in their way.
3. Public schools in every state will embrace homosexuality.
“Embrace homosexuality”? Very simply put, this is verbal imagery
meant to inflame and mislead. Public schools teach facts and realities:
Homosexuals have existed in all cultures and in all times and have been among