Horrific Column in 'Desmoines Register' Blasting Marriage Equality

The Iowa Family Policy Center can be referred to as Iowa's local National Organization for Marriage. Responsible for many anti-gay maneuvers, they wigged out when the Iowa Supreme Court ruled the same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional, so they rallied 400 to protest at the capitol and did it again not long after.

Now they've stooped to new low levels. They're behind a horrific guest column in the Desmoines Register titled "Homosexual lifestyle, marriage cause families pain".

In it, Karl and Judy Schowengerdt recall their son Randy who was "recruited into the homosexual lifestyle" and contracted AIDS. They claim that the homosexual community rejected him afterward. From this experience, they make the illogical claim same-sex marriage harms families.

Excerpt:

For years, my wife and I have watched the media and homosexual activists work together to redefine family and marriage in our society. The consistent message has been that homosexual "marriage" will hurt no one, and that those of us who support marriage only between one man and one woman will not be impacted. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Our hearts go out to people caught up in homosexuality. The destruction and pain that homosexuality leaves in its wake is deep and impacts so many more than just the individuals caught up in the activity. We now know several other couples who are struggling with a son who chose to engage in homosexuality. We know the pain they endure, and understand when they reach out for help. One person's homosexuality causes stress and strain on every friend and relative who truly cares about them.

It's a very sad story and you can't not feel for their pain. But also, you can't help but see the coaching from the Iowa Family Policy Center, guiding them to make an illogical connection between the tragedy of their son and monogamous, committed same-sex couples who want to be married. This disgusting manipulation by an organization that supposedly puts family first is taking advantage of a family's misfortune to win a battle that they've already lost.

The Schowengerdts claim their son Randy said, as he was dying, that homosexuality is a "cult" and that it is not a "lifestyle." He was dying. His friends abandoned him. He was forced to go back to his parents who had rejected him. I too would be bitter against my friends and the lifestyle I chose.

Randy's poor choices in life and who he chose to hang out with are not an accurate portrayal of the LGBT community as a whole - they only represent Randy. I guarantee that Karl and Judy Schowengerdt have not taken any steps to meet any other members of the LGBT community but choose to make their blanket statements against us through the prism of their and Randy's experience.

The Iowa Family Policy Center uses this situation to paint all homosexuals in this tragic light and make the erroneous jump that monogamous same-sex couples relationships will have the same dire consequences on their respective families as Randy's life had on his.

Here is an interview with the Schowengerdts.



Please leave comments to the article with respectful responses and with sympathy for the Schowengerdt, but call out the Iowa Family Policy Center on their horrible practices and manipulation.