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The making of gay marriage’s top foe
February 9, 2012
The making of gay marriage’s top foe
Salon exclusive: How Maggie Gallagher’s college pregnancy made her a single mom, and a traditional marriage zealot, by Mark Oppenheimer
Read article at Salon.com
7 Comments Leave a Comment
1.
Rick Jacobs | February 9, 2012 at 3:04 pm
Thanks for posting this, Kathleen!
Rick.
2.
Kathleen | February 9, 2012 at 3:23 pm
You bet. I found it very interesting.
3.
Bay Area John | February 9, 2012 at 5:10 pm
Amazing how one person's misfortunes can become a crusade to hold others back. An unwed mother's mission to mandate marriage behavior morphs into leading a nation movement.
I wonder if Maggie's attitude would be different about what's right and how religious rights in bullying should be upheld if her son had been bullied by kids who sincerely believed their religion supported the condemnation of out of wedlock children. And it was so continuous and nasty, and not contradicted by school officials, until his self worth was so eroded that he took his own life. Would that be evidence of how he was innately morally defective by his status> Maybe he choose to it?
4.
MightyAcorn | February 9, 2012 at 7:14 pm
Funny the author mentioned her " autism- like" consistency in insisting on her irrational views, I was just thinking that myself from reading the article. Her blaming behavior over her one huge "mistake"– assuming sex was disconnected from pregnancy– is both laughably and pitiably transparent. No Maggie dear….you lost your head knowing full well about sperm and eggs and birth control and abortion, you made your choices both before and after you got pregnant, and you blame "feminists" et al for your impulses and miscalculations. Very Randian, in fact, and also like Rand in hypocrisy, unable to admit in the face of overwhelming credible evidence that she was wrong.
Have fun trying to shout down the hurricane of change for the rest of your life, my dear. And hang on to those friends of yours, you'll need them.
5.
Sagesse | February 9, 2012 at 8:29 pm
“Since I was a girl, in the middle of a sexual revolution, I was repeatedly taught that we had separated sex from reproduction … Under the influence of this teaching, whole generations of formerly young women of my age grew up shocked, shocked to discover they are pregnant, and the men who impregnate them feel minimal responsibility. They had consented to sex, not to babies, and what did sex have to do with babies?…"
This is a quote from Maggie, not the author of the article. Really Maggie? Really!!? I was on the leading edge of the sexual revolution, in college ten years before Maggie. Have to say, everyone I knew (women and men) understood perfectly well that to enjoy the sexual revolution, you had to responsibly, conscientiously, proactively separate sex from procreation.
The story is at once sad, and chilling.
6.
Craig S. | February 10, 2012 at 6:59 am
I actually came away from the Salon article with an unexpected sympathy for Maggie, something I would never have predicted. You know, it's ALWAYS personal, and Maggie has sought a solution to her apparently traumatizing event of becoming pregnant-before-married in college; and in the bizarre way life comes at you, it has morphed into an obsession — we just happen to be in the cross-hairs of it. Yes, I think she's terribly misguided, but I also think she's incontrovertibly sincere. Honestly, and without spite, I really do believe she could use some very good therapy, but at this point nothing will move her away from fighting against our struggle for marriage equality.
It's easier, too, I admit, not to hate her, knowing she fights an ultimately losing battle against us. Having said all that, she made a conscious choice to fight against our civil rights, and we must fight back with vigor: but not, please, with the sort of personal attacks I often read with disappointment. Like every one of us, she's a wounded soul, and working to heal herself. I can relate to that; I can sympathize with that; and I can have some compassion for her, even as I understand even more clearly she is the mortal enemy of my people and of so much I feel is right. But if what I, myself, feel is 'right' is the direct and unavoidable result of my own life experience, is it any wonder that what to her is 'right' is a direct result of hers? And here's the root of my disagreement with Maggie, and with many on her 'side of the aisle:' — I'm okay with people pursuing their own life paths; she, on the other hand, wants everyone to pursue the path that feels 'right' to her. It is this sense of "my experience is universally true for everyone" rather than "my experience is unique to me" that sets us apart. I have no problem with the diversity of experience that leads us to divergent conclusions; but I have a problem with the belief that any one person's conclusions are the incontrovertible 'one right answer' for the rest of the planet. I personally wish her well, but I vigorously hope (with great optimism as we march forward) her public agenda fails. Sadly, I think her personal well being she may have tied too closely to the battle against marriage equality — and it does not bode well for her.
7.
iSarcasm | February 10, 2012 at 8:42 pm
I was told once that before we get to enter heaven we have to live and feel all the emotions that others have felt due to our actions. That way when we get there and our souls are transparent we can be comfortable with each other and what we have done in our lives. Maggie works on at least a national level. I don't know if I would have the strength to put up with that kind of mass consciousness of pain and misery!
Good luck Mags!
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