I think you'll find that most people believe rights come from the Constitution or the government. Most of their lives they've heard things like, "I have a 1st amendment right to free speech," "We need to protect our 2nd amendment rights to bear arms," or the simple, "constitutional rights," all of which imply the Constitution, and by extension, government, is the source for rights.
That doesn't mean the materials in question weren't deliberately written and used to take advantage of the misconception. None of that was innocent. However, we need to be aware of the importance of being accurate when we speak of these matters including correcting, when necessary, misstatements even from people on our side.
Go back twenty years and consider how many high school students would approve of homosexual marriage.
It only took twenty years to rinse Christian thought on the deviant behavior of homosexuals out of your children.
This in my opinion was a turning point, one I though would never happen. Not that homosexual marriage would not happen, but that Christians would accept it with out a whimper.