JON CARROLL: Please Shut Up, Hatemongers

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 3/20/6 | Jon Carroll

[SmithL]

I believe I lost it. I believe I yelled. It was in an empty room, so no animals were harmed in the making of that yell, but still. I felt frustrated. And you know what's really good when you're feeling frustrated? Remembering that you have a newspaper column.

Last year the Ford Motor Co. started to buy ads in several publications aimed at gay readers. They did so, one presumes, because they realized that gay people buy automobiles, and Ford has, alas, not been selling many automobiles lately. Then the company got assaulted by the American Family Association, a creation of the Rev. Donald Wildmon, a clever right-wing agitator with a hate-based agenda. So Ford announced that it would stop advertising in gay publications.

But then, whoops, Ford reversed its reversal and said, never mind, it was going to advertise in gay publications after all. So then a representative of the AFA announced that it was reinstating its boycott. "We cannot, and will not, sit by as Ford supports a social agenda aimed at the destruction of the family."

What a vile sentence. What a vile sentiment. What overbusy, underbrained worms these people must be. I am not yelling.

My older daughter is a lesbian. She is also the single mother of an adopted child, working to make and sustain a family with jaw-dropping tenacity. I am a member of that family, but she is the head of it. The idea that any part of her social agenda involves the destruction of the family is insulting and stupid. She adopted a child, which means that a child who would not have had a home now has one. It means that a child who would not have rested safely in a mother's arms now does so. These are real family values,

[SmithL]

Jon's columns typically have no headline, so I use the link title from the SFGate homepage. You'll notice that he doesn't complain about the Castro-district hatemonger's attacks on religion and breeders.

[claudiustg]

---My older daughter is a lesbian. She is also the single mother of an adopted child---

Screwing up the next generation...

[orionblamblam]

> She is also the single mother of an adopted child

Single people (straight or otherwise) can adopt? This seems... unwise.

[highlander_UW]

"We cannot, and will not, sit by as Ford supports a social agenda aimed at the destruction of the family."

What a vile sentence. What a vile sentiment.

ROFLOL...being against the destruction of the family is a vile sentiment? Well, not likely to find much common ground when he comes out against families.

[claudiustg]

---This seems... unwise.---

The word insane comes to mind.

[2banana]

They could have done it the easy way, stayed in the closet and decided not to endure the hassles of having children, but they didn't. They wanted a family. They wanted a lover and companion to share their lives with, and they wanted children to love. And for this they get insulted by cretins.

By definition - how does a "gay couple" do this?

[conservative physics]

quote "She adopted a child, which means that a child who would not have had a home now has one"

it should have read:

she adopted a child, which means that child was robbed of the ability to have a normal adopted family, and must now be raised by a mentally ill person.

[dsc]

"What a vile sentence. What a vile sentiment."

No, actually, it's not. Increasing the incidence of same-sex attraction disorder while discouraging sufferers to seek treatment is vile, and that's what this author's twisted ideas do.

[Ramius]

This guy comes from a place where "family" is a banned word in the want ads, and he wishes to lecture on the topic.

But that said... it was really, really stupid to make a big deal out of Ford merely advertising in some gay publications. [yawn] If that is some kind of threat... color me unimpressed.

[icwhatudo]

I love how people scream how a group is denying other's rights and won't tolerate other's beliefs and are name callers....all while they are trying to deny the group the right to do so, won't tolerate the groups beliefs and use derogatory names about them.
Pot/Kettle

[butternut_squash_bisque]

"What a vile sentence. What a vile sentiment."

What a vile, little homo-sodomite supporter the author is.

[AnnoyedOne]

" I am a member of that family, but she is the head of it."

Naturally, since it sounds like she is the one in the family who has a pair.

[oyez]

Many homosexuals estrange themselves from their own families in failure of acceptance of the other's life style. Parents cut themselves off in shame and worry. The children decide that parents are bigots and declare the family unit is cruel and unbending. Gays take their bigotry a step further and attack society. Society should stand its ground for what is proper and right.

[jiggyboy]

The word illegal comes to mind as well. I know for a fact that there are laws in many states that explicitly forbid adoption by a single person, and in the states that don't have such laws, the overwhelming majority of the adoption agencies make it their policy.

I'll bet that she found a beard for the transaction.

[D.P.Roberts]

So let me get this straight, Jon. (If that word doesn't offend you.) You screwed up your daughter and now you want to screw up everyone else? Or you just want to be told it's OK that you raised a pervert?

[joesnuffy]

What does it prosper a person to gain the whole world and lose their soul...

The same goes for a family, a town, a nation, a culture.

The consequences of a generation or two of lost souls is the death of that family,town, nation and culture....

She might be the 'leader' of her family but she takes it to hell with her...as her adopted child most likely will follow in her footsteps if the Almighty One Himself withholds His grace.

imo

[IronJack]

Personally, I find this article dripping with hate. Apparently Jon's window is actually a mirror.

[little jeremiah]

More and more - any criticism of homosexuality at all is vile hatespeech.

[FreeManWhoCan]

If gays are adopting kids that no one wants, then who will adopt them? Is it better to leave children in an orphanage? Who here is trying to adopt a crack baby? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

[Alouette]

She adopted a child, which means that a child who would not have had a home now has one.

This is a false dichotomy. Another way to say this is that a child who could have been adopted by a loving mother and father has now been deprived of one in order to become the pet of a selfish narcicist.