The Mastermind Behind Prop 8 and His Lesbian Sister

Frank Schubert, communications consultant extraordinaire for foes of gay marriage, is the man responsible for managing California's Proposition 8 campaign and the man responsible for much of the advertising and communications strategy behind Maine's Question 1. Both of these statewide ballot initiatives took marriage rights away from gay and lesbian couples in their respective states, something that Frank Schubert wears as a badge of honor. The man has even won awards for leading the charge against gay marriage, an issue Schubert finds detrimental to the public health and dangerous to children and society.

Maybe someone should take a second to ask Schubert, then, if he finds his sister a threat to the family. Because as it turns out, Frank's sister, Anne Marie Schubert, is not only openly lesbian, but she's political, too. According to the Bay Area Reporter, she's running for a judge seat on the Sacramento County Superior Court.

Yet while Frank Schubert works tirelessly to prevent people like his sister from attaining equal rights under the law, he still loves his sister. To hear him tell it to the Bay Area Reporter, he's rooting for her to become the next judge in Sacramento County. Sounds like he's being a good brother. But if Anne Marie Schubert would make a good judge in the mind of Frank Schubert, why wouldn't she make a good wife? And why would Frank Schubert build his entire professional identity around preventing people like his own sister from attaining equality?

Frank Schubert joins a roster of people who work passionately to take away civil rights for gays and lesbians, despite having family members who are LGBT. Look no further than Newt Gingrich, or Phyllis Schlafly to see folks who harsh on gays, yet have raised or are siblings with LGBT family members.

But Frank Schubert is an interesting cat on one level. He genuinely seems to think his sister is qualified to be a judge and qualified to be a mother. As Schubert told ebar.com, "I believe she will be an outstanding judge for the people of Sacramento County. She is a fair and diligent prosecutor who has distinguished herself for a considerable period of time." That's in addition to comments Schubert made saying how wonderful a mother she is to two children, who he fully loves and welcomes into the family.

If Schubert loves his sister so much, supports her children, and supports her candidacy as a judge, then why doesn't he support her right to get married? Sure sounds like hypocrisy is a thirteen-letter word, and that's F-R-A-N-K-S-C-H-U-B-E-R-T.

Everyone's entitled to privacy, and Schubert doesn't want his sister to play any part in his political work to marginalize gays and lesbians. That said, Frank Schubert seems to have hit a new level of heartlessness. His work to take away same-sex marriage in California and Maine was always repulsive. The fact that he's done such work -- which included calling gays and lesbians a threat to children, and an unstable force for society -- despite having a lesbian sister, makes Schubert just seem gross.

Schubert's made a lot of money building a communications company hell-bent on taking away or preventing gay marriage. One has to wonder: if he really loved and respected his sister, would he have devoted so much time to building a professional reputation synonymous with being anti-gay?

It also forces one other question: can you be as anti-gay marriage as Frank Schubert is, and still believe that LGBT people, like his sister Anne Marie, can be great mothers, judges, and members of society? Because it sure seems like, in this case, Schubert is talking out of both sides of his mouth.

"I love my sister. She's a great judge and mother" Schubert might say, "but she's still abhorrent enough for me to not want to see her get legally married." Love with a side of abhorrence is never really love, is it?

(Photo courtesy of maxintosh's photostream on Flickr.)