The depositions of Prop 8 witnesses Paul Nathanson and Katherine Young who may have withdrew out of fear for their own safety reveal today how damaging their statements could have been (and ultimately are) to their case. Watch:

Paul Nathanson a Canadian religious scholar who just happens to be gay (duh!) was also trotted out in Varnum v. Brien which ultimately led to the Iowa Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage. In the document Defending Faith, Family and Freedom by the Family Research Council Nathanson is quoted as saying that cultures can only survive and thrive via opposite-sex marriage.

“Because heterosexuality is directly related to both reproduction and survival … every human society has had to promote it actively … Heterosexuality is always fostered by a cultural norm” that limits marriage to unions of men and women. He adds that people “are wrong in assuming that any society can do without it.”

Not surprisingly marriage scholar Maggie Gallagher also surfaces in said document.

Nathanson and Young also co-authored  Marriage à la mode: Answering the Advocates of Gay Marriage in 2003 which attempts to dissect and tear down many marriage equality positions. Some of their arguments below.

Argument 7: Children would be no worse off with happily married gay parents than they are with unhappily married straight ones: This comparison is false, because it involves the best of one scenario with the worst of another. A legitimate comparison would compare either the best of both or the worst of both. Once again, we suggest that the best of marriage (providing at least one parent or other adult of each sex) is better than the best of gay marriage (which provides two parents of the same sex and none of the other one).

Argument 15: Anyone who opposes same-sex marriage is homophobic: This argument amounts to verbal terrorism. By “homophobic” is meant prejudice and hostility, although this word actually connotes the neuroticism of a phobia. The implication is that only evil or sick people can possibly disagree with any claim made by gay people. So much for the possibility of rational debate. (Never mind that not even all gay people are in favor of gay marriage.)

Moreover, this is an ad hominem argument. It is easy to trivialize arguments by attacking the personal integrity of those who make them. That way, you need not deal with the argument itself.

It’s a lengthy document but a good source for “verbal terrorists” such as myself in developing counter arguments.

At least we finally have it in writing…

A group of religious leaders representing various denominations released a 4,700 word manifesto today called the Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience, which formally declares their opposition to gay marriage and abortion, among other things.. The document also encourages Christians to resist and disobey laws contrary to their teachings on those issues.

“We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence,” it says.

The manifesto, to be released on Friday at the National Press Club in Washington, is an effort to rejuvenate the political alliance of conservative Catholics and evangelicals that dominated the religious debate during the administration of President George W. Bush. The signers include nine Roman Catholic archbishops and the primate of the Orthodox Church in America.

They want to signal to the Obama administration and to Congress that they are still a formidable force that will not compromise on abortion, stem-cell research or gay marriage. They hope to influence current debates over health care reform, the same-sex marriage bill in Washington, D.C., and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The document is the usual treasure trove of hate, one of the choicer passages below…

It is ironic that those who today assert a right to kill the unborn, aged and disabled and also a right to engage in immoral sexual practices, and even a right to have relationships integrated around these practices be recognized and blessed by law—such persons claiming these “rights” are very often in the vanguard of those who would trample upon the freedom of others to express their religious and moral commitments to the sanctity of life and to the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife.

The signatories for the document is a who’s who of the anti-gay religious establishment, including James Dobson, Maggie Gallagher, Bishop Harry Jackson, Bill Donohue and  Tony Perkins.

Charles Colson, one of the authors of the declaration, pimps the document with some of the usual fear mongering in the clip below…

You can view the document in its entirety here (warning, the link may be a bit slow).

A-list bigots, religious zealots and rightwing hypocrites are holding a meet and greet at the Values Voter Summit 2009 in Washington D.C. this week. Everyone from Rep. Michelle Bachman to actor-turned-minister Stephen Baldwin are on hand to rally conservatives against the teaming hoards that threaten the very fabric of this nation: the gays, the liberals, and one black president.

In the clip below Maggie Gallagher of the National Organization for Marriage introduces pro-opposite marriage darling and almost-Miss California Carrie Prejean.

Okay… some one fetch me a bucket. Next up, Carrie Prejean.

Intolerant? And the crocodile tears? Oh please make the pablum stop!

In what few would consider a fair fight, Sirius XM host Mike Signorile took on National Organization for Marriage (NOM) executive director Brian Brown, making short work of Brown’s feeble, empty-headed arguments.

It’s truly amazing that characters like Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown are able to keep NOM afloat considering how ineffective they are in defending positions which fail under the mildest of scrutiny. Just take a look back at some of Brown’s earlier work on Penn & Teller’s Bullsh!t.