For weeks now, antigay groups like the National Organization for Marriage have been pouring money into the election in Iowa and stirring up homophobic sentiments among the right wing voters in the state in a desperate attempt to win votes for Republicans and erode the progress that LGBTs have made in the state. Last week it was noted that NOM spent $37,000 on behalf of the Republican candidate. The Republican candidate herself has tried to distance herself from these groups. But as ThinkProgress tells us:
Cindy Golding, the Republican candidate in Iowa’s special state Senate election, initially sought to distance herself from the question of same-sex marriage by speaking out against meddling from outside interest groups and saying that she supports a popular vote on the issue in order to focus the state on more pressing economic concerns. But with poll numbers showing her running behind Democrat Liz Mathis, Golding is now actively courting the support of the state’s radical anti-gay conservatives and will accept their endorsement during an event today — on the eve of the state’s special election[.]
So it's no surprise when these fringe elements crawl out of the woodwork for everyone to see:
MARION, IA (KGAN) -- A last minute attack ad has surfaced in the race for Senate District 18 in Marion. The ad comes as a phone call and a number of voters called CBS 2 & FOX 28 about the messages. With the election on Tuesday the ad comes just in time to try and swing votes. Andrea Jilovec was one voter who received the call.
"I was shocked, I was dismayed, and I think it's one of the worst phone calls I have ever received," she says.
The caller says the message is sponsored by the Citizens for Honesty and Sound Marriage in Iowa and it targets Liz Mathis and her stance on same-sex marriage. The calls come in as private and cannot be traced or called back. Monday night the Golding campaign quick to say the message didn't come from them or the Republican party.
The robocall was pretty graphic for a campaign. The recorded message said:
“homosexual marriage obviously involves homosexual sex,” in an effort to attack the Democratic nominee for state senate, Liz Mathis.
And it "gives Mathis’ telephone number and says they should “call her and ask what homosexual sex acts she endorses.”'
It should go without saying that injecting homophobia into local and national politics makes life more difficult for LGBT Americans. During these types of campaigns, violence against LGBTs increases dramatically. The 2004-06 state marriage amendment campaigns are an example of this.
And it should go without saying that allowing two people who love each other to get married and have a family together doesn't require individual voters to imagine gay sex acts before they go to the polls to vote for a legislator.
For their part, NOM is telling everyone that this has nothing to do with them or their vicious antigay campaigns and their thousands of dollars they've poured into Iowa and any other state that might be thinking about allowing gays and lesbians to legally marry. They say that what's really going on is, well, you have to read it to believe it:
"Yesterday a phony group claiming to support marriage launched robo calls that were so offensive they clearly were designed to turn voters away from Cindy Golding because she supports marriage between one man and one woman," said Brian Brown, president of NOM. "Neither NOM nor Family Leader had anything to do with these calls and we decry them. We call on the Attorney General to launch an investigation into this dirty trick to determine who is behind the calls, which are designed to steal the election from Ms. Golding."
The more logical explanation is that antigay groups simply don't care about the impact their words, actions and money will have on society. They're trying to blame this on Mathis' campaign because no homophobic person anywhere ever wants to take responsibility for what they do or say, and if called out on it, the person doing the calling out is "bullying" heterosexual supporters of opposite-marriage. When you do and say these hateful things, it's easy to lose control of the message because hatred is an ugly thing.
The simple solution would be to, you know, stop it. But the homophobes will always be with us.