A Top GOP Staffer Links Same-Sex Marriage to Child Rape

by Michael Jones · 2009-05-20 09:08:00 UTC
Topics:

GOP

This bit of news should raise everyone's hackles, especially given that the staffer in question is now the chief Republican counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee - the committee that is about to debate whoever President Obama nominates for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Per Raw Story, William Smith, appointed as Judiciary chief counsel last week by Sen. Jeff Sessions, wrote a blog post last month lambasting Steve Schmidt (the GOP operative who gave several speeches last month criticizing the Republican Party's total and undeniable opposition to same-sex marriage) in which he equated same-sex marriage with child rape, bestiality and pedophilia.  William Smith, are you related to Rick Santorum by chance?

Smith's blog post in question has been - perhaps not surprisingly - removed from its original site, although a google cached version still lives on in infamy.  In the post, here's what Smith wrote:

“I wonder if next week Schmidt will take his close minded stump speech to a NAMBLA meeting.  For those unfamiliar with NAMBLA, the acronym is for North American Man Boy Love Association.”

“Schmidt would quickly tell you that he is not advocating that we support 60 year old men in their desire to rape 8 year old boys, but he would not classify his opposition as narrow minded.  No! This is a principled position; there is some logic behind it, Schmidt would say.”

“Is Schmidt then going to take his close minded stump speech to the Bestiality Club?  Again, his answer would be no, although there are a group of people who embrace this lifestyle.”

“Schmidt and other gay lifestyle proponents would say that my opposition [to same-sex marriage] is based on the slippery slope approach.  I say that it is based on principle and that it is no more close minded than their position for gay unions. The difference between me and Schmidt is that I’m not a maverick. I’m guided by something called Christian principles. And I don’t need people in California, New York and Washington to tell me what the principles should be.”

Wow.  This type of writing and extremely anti-LGBT thinking gets you a top position in the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee?  What was Senator Jeff Sessions thinking?!

Clearly, he wasn't.  Because Sessions didn't hire a top legal expert.  He hired a religious fundamentalist posing as a lawyer, who will likely go after any one of Obama's Supreme Court nominees on LGBT issues, claiming it as some sort of Christian mission.  Smith is not qualified for this position.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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