That would be depressing. Evidently they're just following the Prop 8 playbook. Regardless of whether or not they're successful, that those tactics have any resonance at all shows, I think, just how deep homophobia goes in our culture, even among people who ostensibly support gay rights. Put it this way: if learning that kids are going to be taught about homosexuality causes you to flip from being pro-SSM to against it, I don't think it's unfair to say that you're not really in a place where you're comfortable with the idea of gays and lesbians.
But the other side of this is that so many of these claims are patently false--when the National Organization for Marriage or some such group claims that legalizing gay marriage will force pastors to perform gay marriages, it's hard to believe that anyone who actually goes to church would buy it--the best evidence would be that your church doesn't have the National Guard out front to make sure gay people can have a religious wedding ceremony. And yet these sorts of attacks made some serious impact here in California last year. Considering that this is already legal and the dire consequences aren't occurring--indeed, haven't occurred in any U.S. state or other country that I know of--suggest that this is all bullshit. It's liars at NOM talking about a slippery slope when we can see very well that the slope lacks viscosity. If these arguments were to be made about, say, interracial marriage in this day and age, nobody would listen. But despite improving poll numbers, I suspect that we're a long way off from actual acceptance of homosexuals in our society. Quite a bit of support for gay rights seems to be very soft and easily pliable to hysteria, which is not so much a good sign.
