After a month of mostly bad news for
gay marriage foes, they have launched a new ad campaign featuring the
new star of the anti-gay marriage movement, Miss California Carrie
Prejean.
The National Organization for Marriage
(NOM) is pushing back against a growing gay marriage momentum. The
new ad accuses gay rights activists of attacking Prejean on her
opposition to gay marriage.
Celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton,
who is gay, attacked Prejean for answering during the Miss USA
contest that she believed marriage “should be between a man and a
woman.” In a video posted at his blog, PerezHilton.com, he called
her a “dumb bitch.” And added that he would have snatched the
pageant crown from her head if she would have won. He later
apologized, asking Prejean out for “coffee and talk.”
But the damage was done, and Prejean
refused the offer.
Social conservatives might well be
thanking Hilton about now. In viciously singling out Prejean, Hilton
has provided them endless anti-gay fodder and helped create a new
Christian conservative star.
It's Hilton's worst nightmare come
true. His loud-mouth has gotten him in trouble before, but this time
he appears to be on his own as the Christian right unloads on him.
(Conservative radio host Michael Savage called him “a piece of
human waste with eyes.”) In dissecting the story, gay media
outlets called out Prejean, accusing her of exploiting the incident
to advance her own fame, but they also harrumphed and properly bolted
away from Hilton.
“[W]e just try to pretend that he
doesn't exit,” Japhy Grant wrote at Queerty.com.
“He most certainly does not speak for
us,” Jeremy Hooper wrote at GoodAsYou.org.
The ad also draws in Human Rights
Campaign (HRC) President Joe Solmonese, who squared off against NOM
President Maggie Gallagher on MSNBC's Hardball. HRC
has produced a website (www.hrc.com/endthelies)
that calls out gay rights opponents on misinformation.
“Gay marriage activists attack people
for supporting marriage because they don't want to debate the
consequences of same-sex marriage,” the ad says. Those
consequences, the ad claims, will be dire for religious organizations
and individuals that disagree with gay marriage.
“The only terrible consequence of
marriage equality they've demonstrated so far is a gay blogger
disagreeing with a beauty queen,” Solmonese told POLITICO's
Ben Smith.
But will the ad be effective in turning
the tide? The group's last ad, Gathering Storm, was parodied
to death and debuted in the same month that gay marriage has gained
its most traction.
The ad, ironically, is titled No
Offense.