Unless They’re Gay and Not in Massachusetts
This ad in bus shelters all over the District is brought to you by Baltimore-based Christian nonprofit Campaign for Our Children, which is “targeting the attitudes of teens aged 15 to 19 with a bold new program, aimed at promoting one of the world’s most cherished institutions: marriage.”
First: 15- to 19-year-olds?
Second: CEO of Campaign for Our Children, Hal Donofrio, told D.C. gay pub MetroWeekly: “I would say, it’s not your issue. It has to do with the birth of babies and preventing unwanted pregnancy. Grind your axe somewhere else. We’re not in that arena. We don’t want to dictate to anyone. We just want to prevent teen pregnancy.”
Third: Not only are these ads offensive to gay people, they’re offensive to single people who have a bunch of smug-marrieds as friends, and married people who remember what it was like to be single and have a bunch of smug-marrieds as friends.
How long this campaign will last is unclear. Clear Channel Outdoors, which maintains D.C.’s bus shelters and sells its ads, has not yet returned a call. When they finally get back to me, what should I ask them?
5 Responses to “Unless They’re Gay and Not in Massachusetts”
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April 2nd, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Wait, how the hell does promoting marriage prevent teen pregnancy? That only makes sense if the only kind of teen pregnancy they are against is the out-of-wedlock kind, which I suppose is possible, but doesn’t really make much sense.
I’ve seen these ads before and thought about how absurd they are… for one thing, I would bet the data they’re using probably has some pretty big flaws and confounding factors. But even if it were to be a fact that marriage has a causal relationship with income, is that really the message you want to be sending about why marriage is good - that it’s financially advantageous? No mention of love, companionship, family, commitment? It’s such an odd argument coming from a supposedly Christian group.
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:31 pm
not only is this shit offensive to the gays and the singles who don’t want to play the OMGI’MGETTINGMARRIEDSHRIEEEEK game, it’s racist/classist too.
get the bitches off welfare is the message i’m getting. also, babies out of wedlock=hellfire and damnation.
in a nutshell: fuck this campaign.
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:36 pm
I was actually walking past a bus shelter on U Street and saw one of these while I happened to have a can of spray-paint in hand. I’ll admit I was tempted to add a few caveats to the poster. Also, what’s so bad about the marriage penalty? It’s cheaper to cook for two than for one and there are any number of economies that a married couple can benefit from, why shouldn’t Uncle Sam cash in? It’s not like people refuse to marry for tax reasons.
April 2nd, 2008 at 5:28 pm
It isn’t an anti-gay ad, even if it is from an anti-gay group. If marriage is a good thing, as these folks say, it should be extended to everyone and not restricted. Gay people are not offended by straights marrying, we just want the legal right to marry, whether we decide to do so or not.
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:53 pm
I’m all in favor of preventing teen pregnancy, but this is another example of right message, wrong messenger scenario. If this was aimed at adults involved in committed relationships, I get it. However, let’s not forget that the many divorce and break-ups were a result of money. What good is talking about the financial benefits of getting marriage, when too many people can’t balance their checkbook. Another example of how you can broke underestimating the American Public.