MFI's Future of Marriage Forum

Today I attended the “Future of Marriage: Five Years After Goodridge” at the Suffolk University Law School. The forum was put on by the Massachusetts Family Institute and included Maggie Gallagher, Jeff Jacoby, Phil Moran and David Parker. Kris Mineau of MFI was supposed to be the moderator but essentially just played Emcee because all of the panel just gave speeches.

I arrived a few minutes before the start of the event. Have you ever been to a wake? If so you know what the atmosphere was like.

Just to remind you, the topic was the “Future of Marriage”.

First up was Maggie Gallagher who talked for about a half hour immediately asking the crowd to identify whether they were for or against gay marriage. Dividing the crowd is always a good ice breaker. All that stuck out from her talk was that she doesn’t like being called a bigot. That seems to be the biggest concern from her side, they don’t like to be called haters even though they want to take away people’s rights. She doesn’t believe it is bigotry to recognize that there is a special unique relationship between men and women and we should give them special rights. She says she has a dim view of the U.S. if marriage is redefined.

Jeff Jacoby was up next and to be honest, he was a bore. He blames Frank Rich of the NY Times for starting the “haters and zealots” language when Frank equated San Francisco’s marriages in 2004 to the racial discrimination in the south at the lunch counters. He doesn’t believe it’s a civil right even though several civil rights leaders who marched in the south do.

Then some lawyer who is the President of the Pro-Life Legal Defense Fund goes up and just reads from the Goodridge decision. He, like MassResistance, believes that marriage equality is not legal in Massachusetts and blames Mitt Romney for issuing the marriage licenses.

Finally, David “Mad Dad” Parker gets his chance. He blames marriage equality for his arrest, again, he never mentions that he chose to be arrested after being told if he didn’t leave he would get arrested. He believes that homosexuals want to indoctrinate children with their books and lessons. Side note to David: I went to elementary school and read all those lovely heterosexual stories, Cinderella, Snow White, etc… and I’m still gay.

In all, they didn’t talk about the future of marriage at all. They all were just living in the past and didn’t want to be called bigots.

Update: Massmarrier over at Marry in Massachusetts was also there at the forum. Check out his version of the event.