[BRIEF NOTE] Queers have families, too

[rfmcdonald]

Slap Upside the Head always has wonderful links. Catholic Vote Action, it seems, is unhappy about a pro-same-sex marriage television advertisement in Maine, the state preparing for a referendum on same issue. Why?

Catholic Vote Action, a religious political group based in Chicago, is demanding that an ad supporting equal marriage rights in the state of Maine be pulled off the air.

The ad, which features a real family including a Catholic grandmother who supports her gay son and his adopted child, was produced by Protect Maine Equality in response to an upcoming ballot initiative that would take away the existing right of gay couples to marry in the state. “I’ve been a Catholic all my life,” the grandmother says in the ad, “my faith means a lot to me.” She continues, “Marriage to me is a great institution that works, and it’s what I want for my children too.”

Essentially, it’s a real-life example of how it’s possible to harmonize one’s faith and family, supporting the loving relationships in which families can flourish.

Unacceptable, of course, according to Catholic Vote Action, who released a press release on Monday declaring that all Catholics do not support “counterfeit marriages” and demanding that the ad be pulled immediately. Because, as we all know, loving and supporting your family throughout hardships and mean-spirited attacks just isn’t a value worth keeping.

What I find amusing, in a twisted kind of way, is not only the group's assumption that queers can't constitute families, but the group's assumption that queers don't have valid families, that families are unwilling to stand together and figure out solutions to their problems and that these processes include the sorts of people that Catholic Vote Action wants to exclude altogether.