Last night in our nightly news roundup at my home blog, we mentioned the new line of Gay Marriage cards that Hallmark has introduced, and said “Look for the wingnut freakazoids to call for a boycott of Hallmark any minute.” Well, we should have started a pool and offered a prize to the person who got closest, because it started this morning.
Donald Wildmon’s American Family Association is already screeching that Hallmark is pushing same sex marriage.
Nonsense. There is a huge gulf between accepting a reality and promoting same, and sane people the world over know that.
But reason has never been the long suit of those bigoted morons, anyway. If it was, they probably wouldn’t be bigoted morons.
I especially like that conservatives are all about making money, until they disagree with a product, then it is evil sent from hell, and so is the capitalist who wants to make a buck. Where I come from, we call that hypocrisy. And that is exactly what Wildmon does when he says “Hallmark is a private company obviously driven by greed.”
After I got through wiping away the tears of mirth at the frothing frenzy the wingnuts are ginning up, I got a real kick out of using their own system to send the following communique to Hallmark Chairman Donald Hall.
Stay Strong, Hallmark!
Dear Chairman Hall:
Don’t yield to the wingnuts! As a fellow Kansas Citian, I am proud of you for rolling out your new line of cards that celebrate commitment and devotion between same-sex couples.
There are a hell of a lot more of us than there are of those whack-jobs anyway, and besides that the venerable Wall Street Journal today is reporting that the bloom is fading from the religion-in-politics rose.
Ignore them. Please. They don’t represent America at it’s finest, but with your decision to buck them, knowing the backlash they would try to mount, you do.
I encourage you to do the same.
I have a dream…that four of five correspondences sent via their system will be in support of instead of opposition to Hallmarks decision. It gave me a little bit of what Tom Friedman might call a “suck on this” (pun intended) moment to savor.
UPDATE Via ThinkProgress I found a link that leads to a Zogby poll that finds that 65% of Americans would support a gay person for the presidency.
which is not so bad since it is always amusing to note how narrow, and absurd to the point of surreal their focus is–unfortunately it is also often infuriating.
I have been told, though, that if you use their form to comment, the email, regardless of content may be counted as a comment in support of the AFA position. The people receiving the messages don’t always read them when they can just tick then off more messages from the AFA (and everybody knows what gets the AFA’s dander up).
Actually, I am a little surprised about Hallmark producing this card line. Years ago, I got a summer job at a Hallmark card factory and old Joyce Hall was well-known as a very conservative, rightwing Christian. I remember that the almost entirely female workforce (at least on the card-folding machines I worked on) had to wear dresses and nylon hose to work–considered “appropriate” female dress. Donald Hall must be a big change.
Have you seen what a frenzy they’re in on the Post-Dispatch blogs cause of the stories about McCain’s houses? pretty funny