support civil-rights NOM Rally Hears: Ban Gay Marriage, Save Billions!

NOM Rally Hears: Ban Gay Marriage, Save Billions!

Gay marriage is, at least in part, the reason for the economic downturn. More than that, same-sex marriage contributes to the $280 billion a year taxpayers spend on "fragmented families". So, to improve the economy, you must overturn legalized same-sex marriage.

This comes from Tamara Scott, the state director of Concerned Women for America, as she spoke to a crowd of about 100 outside the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa, on Sunday's leg of the National Organization for Marriage's 19-state, 23-stop, summer bus tour for "traditional marriage".

Scott's Anti-Gay Appeal to Tax-Payer Purse Strings
Though here we have a clutching at purse strings rather than at pearls, all the same rhetoric is present: damaged society, save the children, looming evil and so on.

The Iowa Independent reports:

“If we would correct the breakdown of the family by 1 percent, we could save the taxpayer $3 billion a year,” she said. “An easy fix and a better fix long term for our children… When the family is healthy, the community benefits. When the family is hurting, society will pay the cost one way or another. We can fix this economic downturn very easily by fixing some hearts.”

Scott called on the crowd to speak up as neighbors and as community members, saying they had bigger impact at the ground level.

“To sit back and do nothing, you become part of the problem,” she said. “We all need to help out. It’s too big for any of us. There’s plenty of evil to go around.”

Scott is citing a 2009 study by the Family Research Council (FRC), a so-called Christian political group that staunchly opposes gay rights in all forms. However, this conclusion is problematic to say the least, and that's without even really considering the merits (or lack thereof) of the study.

Chiefly, it ignores the fact that same-sex marriage has been predicted to be a significant money maker for the state, as is the accepted norm for all states in which gay marriage has been legalized. As the The Iowa Independent also points out (emphasis mine):

Scott’s statements are contradicted at least in part by a 2008 study by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, whichestimated that same-sex weddings and related tourism would bring $160 million to the state of Iowa through 2011, and an extra $5.3 million per year in tax revenue.

The FRC’s studies have also been routinely criticized by media and academia for questionable methodology and politicized conclusions.

Furthermore, Scott's appeal to the idea that gay marriage is breaking up the "traditional family" and undermining heterosexual marriage conveniently ignores that, in 2009, when same-sex marriage was legalized in Iowa, statistics show that Iowa's low marriage rates improved while divorce rates actually went down.

From the Sioux City Journal:

Iowa ended a four-year slide in the number of couples getting married last year, but experts say the turnaround could have been aided in part by an April 2009 court ruling that legalized same-sex marriages.

Also, Iowa posted the lowest number of divorces since 1970 with 7,286 dissolutions, according to preliminary statistics issued by the state Department of Public Health.

That's not to say that there's a causal relationship between allowing gay marriage and a falling divorce rate, but it does serve to demonstrate that gay marriage is not the apocalyptic event for heterosexual marriage that the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) regularly claims it to be, an idea further buoyed by Massachusetts's proportionately and steadily low divorce rate six years after gay marriage was legalized in the state.

As a side note, I find it ironic that this kind of an argument would be made at a NOM rally considering the millions of dollars that NOM has thrown behind anti-gay marriage campaigns in states like California and Maine, all in the interests of saving the "traditional definition of marriage" while the group is still not able to provide any concrete evidence as to how, exactly, gay marriage actually harms heterosexual marriage.

Gay Marriage a Hot Topic for the November Elections
NOM and like-minded supporters of the traditional marriage argument have been working hard to put same-sex marriage on the ballot in Iowa so that it can once again be banned.

However, many Democratic lawmakers opposed these attempts, saying that Iowa has bigger issues to consider and that it would be wrong to enshrine discrimination in Iowa's constitution.

As you would expect, this spat over marriage has become a feature in the run up to the November elections. At the NOM rally on Sunday afternoon, several conservative political hopefuls were in attendance, keen to be seen supporting a heterosexuals-only marriage stance.

Dave Leach, an ultra-conservative Republican candidate running against Democratic incumbent Matt McCoy for the Senate District 31 seat, was present at the rally and handing out fliers, stopping just long enough to tell reporters "I am running against Iowa's chief sodomite."

McCoy, the first openly gay member of Iowa's General Assembly, will no doubt be thrilled with his new title.

Meanwhile, at a One Iowa counter rally held two miles down the road at Western Gateway Park, nearly 300 marriage equality backers gathered to support same-sex couples and their right to marry.

Among the speakers was First Lady Mari Culver, who told reporters that she was skeptical of NOM's assertion that denying same-sex marriage would improve the economy, saying, “I think [NOM] is looking for some economic cover, rather than reveal that some in their group are simply anti-gay."