Focus on the Family is supporting a watered-down reciprocal beneficiaries bill in Colorado that was discussed previously at Ex-Gay Watch.
The bill offers little or nothing that Colorado gay couples don’t already have. Nevertheless, antigay activists claim to be angry at James Dobson for supporting the legislation.
Blogger Nathan Henning zeroes in on one quote by James Dobson, in which the man pities himself for being criticized by antigay conservatives.
Naturally, if he were less narcissistic, Dobson might see that he treats same-sex-attracted persons the same way that activists such as Paul Cameron and Alan Keyes are now treating Dobson.
Is Dobson feeling genuine political heat, or is this one big antigay-movement charade to ensure passage of meaningless legislation as a substitute for true domestic-partnership rights?
Great observation Mike, but I doubt it will even be an issue. Shawn Mitchell’s bill is being seen as what it is by the Democrats who are in charge of both houses of the General Assembly. I give this bill a 1 in 100 chance of making it out of committee, and that’s with no opposition whatsoever on the part of the GLBT community. Contrary to what Dobson says, he is not getting brow-beaten from both sides. It’s only coming from within the religious right.
Equal Rights Colorado has taken no official position on this bill, frankly because the ploy isn’t working, and it’s not worth the effort. It’s also fairly similar to a bill that ERC pushed back in the mid 90s which FOF denounced as undermining marriage. So the sudden support on this bill indicates a serious shift in position on the part of FOF (some might term that a “flip-flop”). Hence the brow beating from the even more extreme right.
What goes around comes around indeed.
Now that Dobson has concluded that Cameron’s credentials consist of “calling himself a researcher”, maybe he’d consider removing an article on the Focus web site that cites Cameron.