In case you haven't heard (and I don't know how you would not have: the story has been everywhere from the Tampa Tribune to MSNBC to the Huffington Post), Impact Florida, an organization committed to attaining marriage equality for all Floridians, is planning a demonstration outside of Governor Charlie Crist's wedding and reception on Friday, December 12. As the recently appointed leader and spokesperson for Impact Florida, over the past 48 hours I have received an inbox full of compliments, questions and requests for interviews. I have also received a small but not negligible amount of criticism. Here are two examples from comments left anonymously on the Saint Petersburg Times' political blog, The Buzz:
"…you usually don't get involved in this voting thing except when you and your buddies try and settle once and for all the question if who's better; Donna Summer or Liza Minelli…"
"Let's make a deal. Everyone can marry anything and as often as they want. Take off all of the discriminatory restrictions. A man can marry his pet sheep and a woman can marry her stud German shepard. A teacher can marry as many of her teenage students as she can squeeze in. Why just limit the fun to homos? Why not let mothers marry their sons and sisters marry their brothers?"
As you can see from these two gems, much of the criticism has been too ridiculous to warrant a response. Some of it, however, has been what true criticism is supposed to be: constructive, challenging and supported by evidence. It has come not from anonymous strangers, but from friends, peers and other respectable folks not too cowardly to join their name to their opinion. I would like to take a few moments to present and respond to these legitimate critiques of Impact Florida's planned demonstration.
This article appears in Dec 3-9, 2008.