MAGA can’t stop pretending it cares about kids

Latest sickening of MAGA types pretending to care about kids It was demolished last weekBut at a time when kindergarten students are being arrested, funds are being cut to catch child predators, and measles epidemic in a detention center, you would be forgiven for missing it.

I’m talking about something Coordinated campaign launched by the religious right Annulling gay marriage on the grounds that it harms children. The effort was prompted by the Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell vs. decision, which made same-sex marriage a fundamental equality right under the 14th Amendment. It is a direct attack on the Hodges decision, but it is also intended to get churches involved and change public opinion.

Good luck with the last chapter. Most Americans support marriage equality. But the Supreme Court? This is much more doubtful these days.

But what bothers me most while waiting for the lawsuit is that the campaign is yet another disingenuous ploy by MAGA to use children as an excuse to attack civil rights and impose Christian nationalist-style religious values ​​on the general public.

MAGA, specifically, frames hatred of immigrants and diversity as protection of children and attempts to portray LGBTQ+ parents as deviants and predators through decades of conspiracy theory. (For example, QAnon is completely Saving children from gay and Democrat predators.)

In reality, it’s the MAGA people who traumatize children.

“Our children are afraid. They are being terrorized,” Chauntyll Allen told me. St. Paul, who was recently arrested for his role in a church protest by a priest who was also an ICE officer. Paul, Minn. He is a member of the school board.

“And we’re not just talking about immigrants,” he continued. All children “watch this, experience this, carry terror in their bodies. What good will this do to our society after 20 years?”

Far from protecting children, this campaign to abolish marriage equality is just one example of harm being done to them for political gain. Features two California cases intended to show how terrible any form of same-sex parenting is, but mischaracterizes facts for maximum outrage.

The campaign is also specifically aims at in vitro fertilization treatment and surrogacy as dangerous ways to promote LGBTQ+ families, an attitude increasingly prevalent in far-right religious circles that want to see more white women having babies through sex with white husbands.

Just as deporting immigrants is not about stopping crime, attacking marriage equality is not about protecting children. Allowing this to be framed this way actually jeopardizes the stability of approximately 300,000 children being raised by approximately 300,000 children across the country. 832,000 couples in same-sex marriages.

It jeopardizes the physical and mental health of LGBTQ+ children in any family growing up in a world that is increasingly hostile to them in terms of gender and identity hate crimes on the rise.

And this endangers all who value a free and fair democracy that separates church and state; By eroding the rights of vulnerable people, it sets a precedent for eroding the rights of the person who marks them next. If LGBTQ+ marriages are not legally protected, how long will it take for racists to come around for the Loving decision legalizing interracial marriage?

If you were in any doubt that the MAGA agenda had gone this far, Second Lady Usha Vance was in lovely company when she recently announced her fourth pregnancy. social media wrote: “There’s nothing exciting about this. We will never vote for your race traitor husband.”

Hate is a virus that spreads at will.

Those behind the effort to repeal marriage equality argue that America will legalize the ability for LGBTQ+ people to marry. “adult desires” It takes precedence over the welfare of children, which depends on being raised in a home with a married man and woman.

Never mind that millions of children are being raised by single parents, grandparents (looking at you J.D. Vance), or other guardians who are not the biological John-and-Jane mother and father of conservative lore. Never mind the many same-sex marriages that do not involve children.

“Americans need to understand the threat that same-sex marriage poses to children and that natural marriage is directly linked to the protection of children,” said campaign leader Katy Faust. he said in an interview With a Christian news site.

Of course, the campaign also doesn’t mention the hundreds of children currently held in detention camps across the country; On some days, the number of children locked up by ICE alone (not in the custody of the Border Patrol or other agencies) has jumped to 400 under the Trump administration. Marshall Project.

Outside of lockdown, Black and brown children are traumatized every day by the fear that they or their parents will be kidnapped or even killed by federal agents. Thousands of children across the country, including California, have stopped going to school and other public places for fear of endangering themselves or their families. Don’t expect to see these people campaigning to protect children.

The campaign also ignores the fact that: US Department of Justice funding The fight against sexual crimes against children has been cut; victims and prosecutors have been deprived of critical resources to combat the real and undoubtedly harmful exploitation of our youth by sex traffickers.

And Epstein. I can’t even begin to talk about the people who rescued children who ignored the victims of the sex crimes detailed in these files (many of whom were children at the time), wringing their hands with families unlike their own. This is a mind-boggling amount of hypocrisy.

But of course, none of this is about saving children; yours, mine or anyone else’s.

But framing this around protecting children is powerful manipulation; gay marriage is actually a last resort effort as it becomes more accepted. Because who wouldn’t want to save our children? Anyway.

Don’t be surprised if this effort gains traction in the coming months. As we approach the election, the MAGA machine will try to shift the lens away from the immigration issue and back to old-school issues like feminism, abortion, and gay marriage; and his base is ready to vote again and again, regardless of what else is going on.

Because they don’t actually care about children. They care about power and are more than willing to exploit children to get it.