Thursday, June 25, 2009

Sen. Eichelberger Issues Statement on His Quote "We're Allowing Gays to Exist."

In what has been coined, "One of the Best Marriage Equality Debates You Will Ever Hear," Pennsylvania's Sen. Daylin Leach, who has proposed a marriage equality bill for his state, and Sen. John Eichelberger, who has proposed banning same-sex marriage, argued their sides of the issue on WHYY.org. In the debate, Sen. Eichelberger, who struggled to support his argument without actual data and research said, "We're allowing the gays to exist."

In the news video below provided by NG Blog, Sen. Eichelberger claims his quote was taken out of context and states his issue with Keystone Progress, who has started a petition demanding he apologize for his comments.



His comment:

"This group is a politically active group that goes around the country targeting people that are involved in this issue. If this is an example of how they conduct themselves then it's difficult to continue dialogue and discussion if people intentionally misportray the truth."

I listened to the whole debate, which you can hear in full at WHYY.org, and Sen. Eichelberger struggled to stand his ground with the well-prepared Sen. Leach. Whether or not he meant it, Sen. Eichelberger did in fact make his offensive comments, underscoring the flaws of his position and proving, yet again, that opposition to same-sex marriage is based on discrimination and homophobia and not fact.

And don't get me started on his remarks about Keystone Progress twisting the truth when he's on record of doing that himself. How can one engage this man in an honest dialogue when he argues based off of hearsay, bigoted feelings and no facts?

Oh, and "misportray"? Is that even a word?

Once again, another politician decides to be on the wrong side of history. Do they ever learn?

2 comments:

  1. Senator Eichelberger's site is flagged by Google as dangerous. Also, is Eichelberger any relation to the late queer performance artist Ethyl Eichelberger?

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is dangerous b/c of malware, not content

    ReplyDelete