Commentary

NOM’s newest ‘victim’ of alleged ‘gay intolerance’ is another dud for the organization

NOM’s newest ‘victim’ of alleged ‘gay intolerance’ is another dud for the organization

The National Organization for Marriage has posted a video of another supposed “victim” of the “intolerant gay agenda” in accordance to the new group it has helped to found – the Marriage Anti-Defamation Alliance.

This week the Marriage Anti-Defamation Alliance is featuring another brand-new interview with another American hero: Jerry Buell, the 2010 Teacher of the Year in Florida who was disciplined by a public school district for posting to his private and personal Facebook account his personal objections to gay marriage in New York.

Orlando Sentinal
Jerry Buell

I will spare you the video (you can see it here). But in NOM’s defense, the story is pretty much true. Buell was disciplined for rude comments he wrote on his private and personal Facebook account about marriage equality passing in New York. And he was reinstated.

Of course NOM conveniently omitted the fact that the controversy shined a light on a lot of other questionable things that Buell did which he could not defend, such as comments he wrote on his syllabus and his webpage:

On his school webpage, Buell wrote that he tries to “teach and lead my students as if Lake Co. Schools had hired Jesus Christ himself.”

His syllabus also offered this warning to students: “I teach God’s truth, I make very few compromises. If you believe you may have a problem with that, get your schedule changed, ’cause I ain’t changing!” On a separate document, he also said the classroom was his “mission field.

. . . the webpage was since removed and Buell has been instructed to remove some parts of his syllabus.

And then there were the former students who came forward with stories of Buell’s anti-gay behavior in class. One former student, Bryan Blaise, told the following story of what Buell said about gays in the military:

Bryan Blaise tells The New Civil Rights Movement blog that during 11th grade at Mount Dora High School, Buell was asked by a student what he thought about gays in the military.

“I tensed, knowing full well the point of view to follow in Mr. Buell’s response,” Blaise said in the interview. “I looked up when he said he supported gays in the military, stunned by the answer. He immediately followed that comment with the statement that we should then put them on the front lines, and pull back. Disgusted at the thought of violence and murder of humans being vocally supported, I shut my book and walked out of class, the only time I would ever do this during my educational career.”

So basically like its first example of alleged homosexual intolerance – Frank Turek, NOM’s newest example is a dud.

But not a total dud. You see, the entire purpose of NOM’s Marriage Anti-Defamation Alliance is to pinpoint examples of how those who favor marriage equality supposedly bully/”persecute” those who don’t.

But based on NOM President Brian Brown’s rendition of the Buell controversy, many folks who defended Buell were those who support marriage equality (emphasis added by me):

Hundreds of Americans, even many who disagree with Mr. Buell’s views on gay marriage, turned up to express support for fundamental American civil rights: to speak, to donate, to vote, to write, and to organize without fear of losing your job.

So if many folks who agreed with marriage equality supported Buell during the controversy, wouldn’t that make NOM’s claim of “alleged pro-gay persecution” inaccurate? Wouldn’t that make the purpose of the Marriage Anti-Defamation Alliance moot?

Of course it would, as it should. But why should NOM let inconsistencies get in the way of making up a good story?

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