Homosexual activists are wringing their hands over a recent challenge to Michigan’s same-sex marriage ban. The “rogue” challenge, filed June 8 in U.S. District Court in Kalamazoo, was brought by Jessie Olson and her partner Tabitha Flatau, the only two plaintiffs in the case.
Making matters worse for those seeking to derail the marriage-protection movement: The plaintiffs are associated with groups of witches, vampires, pagans, “magick” and the “impeach-Bush” movement.
“I think it’s actually rather appropriate that bizarre characters like this are leading the charge against the Michigan marriage amendment,” said Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women for America’s Culture & Family Institute. “For too long, the attack on marriage has come dressed in three-piece suits, as if it were perfectly reasonable to overturn thousands of years of human understanding regarding marriage.”
“These people are asking to overturn votes cast by 2 million voters in Michigan,” said Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan. “One man or woman cannot realistically overturn that decision,” he told The State News of Michigan State University about the challenge to Proposal 2.
The rogue challenge is a major obstacle for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund’s Marriage Project. David Buckel, the project’s director, told the homosexual publication PlanetOut that many points in the Olson complaint are copied directly from a similar challenge two years ago in Nebraska. Some of those points, like the claim that no other state actively prohibits marriage between partners of the same sex, are outdated.
Today, 17 states besides Michigan have defense of marriage amendments.
Buckel is very concerned about what the Olson challenge might do to the overall homosexual strategy.
“For goodness’ sake, we’re in a civil rights movement,” Buckel told PlanetOut. “We’re at a disadvantage. We’ve got to be real smart about what we do.”
Glenn, meanwhile, remains focused on the issue at hand rather than the eccentricities of the plaintiffs.
“No matter what masks these homosexuals wear, be it vampires or witches, AFA of Michigan will defend marriage as a union between a man and a woman,” Glenn said.
For more on this issue, click here for CWA’s Defense of Marriage resources.
