Up is Down, Chavez In, Traditional Marriage Out?

Up is Down, Chavez In, Traditional Marriage Out?

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

April 22, 2009

Based upon recent assertions calling support of traditional male-female marriage controversial, one can clearly expect a blizzard on Independence Day and heat wave on Chanukah and Christmas in the northern hemisphere. That’s because the collective sanity has sprung a leak.

The current trend in the United States these days is the flip side of “normalcy,” to borrow a term coined by President Warren G. Harding in 1920. Normal has now become Obama talking to Venezuela’s despotic dictator Hugo Chavez while accepting a heretofore unknown book that has since shot up to near the top of the charts. The flip side is the disrespect Obama showed Great Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown with both thoughtless (and seemingly useless) gifts.

Normal has become the Obama bow before Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah – a bow that the White House denied in spite of video evidence to the contrary. Message to Obama: we don’t bow and we don’t dip our flag. The flip side is the continuing disrespect shown Brown and Britain by Obama when he returned the bust of Winston Churchill given to President George W. Bush by former Prime Minister Tony Blair following the 9/11 attacks. Obama also demonstrated his disrespect of our staunchest allies by canceling the traditional joint press conference and then referring to Britain as one of our allies, just lumping them in with others, instead of holding them in the esteem in which they have been held for years.

All of these political affronts aside, and they are not being dismissed lightly, now, support of traditional marriage is being called controversial. For those who seem to have forgotten, traditional marriage, and it still is for the time being, is the legal union of one man and one woman in the eyes of G-d and the state. Well, OK 46 states, as of April 27 when Iowa joins Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont as states allowing homosexual marriage.

And don’t get me started on Vermont – the Green Mountain State, which should be called the Pervert State. Not only has Vermont not passed a form of Jessica’s Law regarding mandatory sentencing for child sex-offenders, but the liberal state is considering legalizing “sexting” for 13 to 18-year-olds. Sexting is this new trend of teens text messaging sexual, salacious or compromising photos to one another. This will set a bad precedent and send a message to teens that their actions will have little consequence, which is wrong as such photos will haunt them for years to come.

Back to my regularly scheduled rant about how supporting traditional marriage is now deemed controversial. Carrie Prejean, 21, from San Diego and a student at San Diego Christian College has become the most famous losing contestant in the Miss USA Pageant for having the temerity to actually stand up for what she believes in and give an honest answer to the question posed her about gay marriage.

Prejean, Miss California, representing the state that overwhelmingly supported Proposition 8 last November, denying the legalization of gay marriage in the Golden State, said in her country marriage is between one man and one woman. For that answer she was castigated by a most crass, intolerable and openly gay pageant judge Perez Hilton. Hilton is certainly entitled to his opinion about gay marriage, Prejean and anything else upon which he chooses to opine, but so to is Prejean. Pageant organizer and co-owner Donald Trump praised Prejean for her answer. “I respected her answer because she gave her opinion,” said Trump.

There’s a lot to be said for the old joke, if G-d had endorsed gay marriage, he would created Adam and Steve, not Adam and Eve. There is nothing controversial about supporting the union of one man and one woman. There is nothing controversial about supporting traditional family values. What will be demanded next after gay marriage? Multiple spouses? Marriage between species? Marriage of children to adults? Where will the line be drawn?

The real controversy should be how a small community such as the gay community, not all of whom are in lock step with Hilton, should be able to dictate the morals of American society to the point where endorsement of heterosexual marriage is considered controversial.

Adding insult to injury, Hilton said Prejean should have given a politically correct answer instead of a truthful answer. What kind of message does that send? Do we really want 50 women lined up one after the other all parroting the same answer of “world peace?” No. It’s refreshing to see pageants with contestants who give thoughtful, truthful answers, even at the cost of the title. Prejean was true to herself and her convictions and she will go much further for it. That’s the lesson to be learned.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and political consultant living in Alexandria, VA.