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Last summer, the New Hampshire legislature approved a Marriage Equality law and the governor signed it. The law took effect on January 1, 2010.
Even before the law took effect, there were moves to repeal it. This week State Representative Nancy Elliott (R-Merrimack) offered her tenuous reason for repeal during hearings on a House Bill to repeal. From the Nashua Telegraph:
A Merrimack legislator opposed to same-sex marriage claimed this week that fifth-grade students in Nashua are being shown pictures of naked men and taught how to engage in anal sex.
“I heard yesterday from a mother that in fifth grade in Nashua, they were given as part of their classroom instruction naked pictures of two men showing a presentation of anal sex,” Rep. Nancy Elliott, R-Merrimack, said during a hearing in Concord on HB1590, which would repeal the law legalizing same-sex marriage.
Here’s a YouTube of Rep. Elliott in all her glory. Please listen to the entire piece.
OK, you’re back? Here’s what the Nashua school officials have to say:
The comments have Nashua school officials at a loss. Nothing resembling what Elliott said is being taught in any of Nashua’s schools, officials say.
Superintendent Mark Conrad said school officials have asked all elementary school principals about the claim. Conrad said there is no evidence to substantiate Elliott’s comment and no parents have called to complain.
Rep. Elliott is offering nothing more than a standard statement of one fact leading to a leap to a causal relation to something totally different. We’ve seen this in the Prop 8 Trial coverage where the Defendant-Intervenors described their definitions of marriage (much more limiting than just "man/woman" only). We’ve seen it with "national" politicians such as former PA senator Rick Santorum and his rants that homosexuality leads to "Man on Dog" sex.
These are the attitudes that we have to overcome for Marriage Equality and to achieve the repeal of DADT and DOMA.
Here’s Comedy Central’s perspective on Rep. Elliott.
And here’s Tom Waits on marriage from back when. Because I can.
51 Comments
It’s so easy to figure out how this happened:
And they are off to the races.
Yeah, I was thinking more along the lines of the e-mail chain where she got an e-mail forward with a ZOMG! THIS IS WHAT THEY’RE TEACHING IN SCHOOL NOW!!11!!!1
But six of one, three pair of another.
You don’t even need that. Check out Fox News. Making shit up completely out of whole cloth is a legitimate substitute for facts these days. On the other hand, if the story were that schools were teaching kids about anal sex because it must be avoided at all costs in order to protect from AIDS and other curses God visits upon those who engage in such ungodly behaviors, they would be demanding funding for the program.
My daughters on the fearmongering over teaching about homosexuality and gay marriage in the schools should gay marriage be made legal: The older one said, “It’s not like we don’t already know there are gay people out there and they don’t all come from some other planet where nobody wants to get married to the person they love.” The other said, “What? Do they think that if I’m taught that being gay is okay it will turn me gay? You already taught me that a long time ago and I still like guys instead of girls.”
Like everything else in the fearmongering world, it depends on people being scared to death and reacting instead of taking the time to think it through logically. When even kids can figure it out with very little reflection, that’s just sad that arguments like that can still carry so much weight. But the good news is that since kids can figure it out, and have, it’s likely to get worse for the bigots instead of better.
Couldn’t watch video– something about it being private and that I have to accept someone’s friend request first.
Ah that is a change since when I first published. Fortunately however, you can go to the Nashua Telegraph link I provided in the second paragraph, and watch the video that accompanies the telegraph. And the Comedy Central link had it as well at the time of publication.
Edit: OK, the Comedy Central link is also no longer viewable. So we’re send a little traffic to the Nashua Telegraph!
interesting, isn’t it, that the video posted here, and the link to a Comedy Central page containing the same video, both indicate that the video is now “private.” Seems like someone’s decided that parading her total cluelessness before the entire planet was less that a good idea. Too bad, I’d like to have seen it. Sounds like a scream.
She is not just clueless – she is obscene – and I think enjoys being a potty mouth.
The Nashua Telegraph link still has their copy of the video up and it is outside of YouTube.
So whomever brought the YouTube to private, can’t hide everything.
I am a teacher and the best way (I think) to respond to this kind of BS is to point out how unlikely it would be for ANY elementary curriculum to include pictures of ANY type of copulation … straight OR gay! As a parent, I would be concerned about either, but the reality is, it’s very, very, unlikely that such an approach would be used in ANY classroom in the U.S. If someone has actual PROOF of such an occurrence, I’d really like to see the documentation. Everywhere I’ve taught, if a teacher were found to be engaging in such behavior, they’d be fired immediately. Anyone know of any REAL examples of such things happening at this age level??
Yeah. I figured the folks in the Nashua school admin were probably all on the phone to each other:
And the news article does reflect that as I quoted.
If you’re a teacher you should keep in mind at all times that a substantial number of your student’s parents find this woman’s claims totally believable, unfortunately. Always make sure your administrators like you, because if it ever comes down to a choice for a parent of accepting there’s the slightest flaw in their child vs. believing you’re a crazy villain, you’re going to need backup.
ron pauls positions on these subjects are very supportive of the gay position of equality
And I do respect that piece of Mr Paul’s beliefs.
But since we’re not talking about Ron Paul here, but rather the idiocy of one of his fellow Republicans (albeit at the state level in NH), maybe you and he can do a little publicity to point out how his fellow Republicans feel on this issue.
it is clear, to any observer, that the republican party wants nothing to do with ron paul. he speaks clearly on all issues
i would just note that i never read you espousing that Democrats you support. answer or advertise against ben nelson or joe liberman or the democratic machine in general–seems like a double standard
Possibly because you’ve never seen me espousing many Democrats to support.
And if you’ve missed folks here at FDL (including myself) laying into Ben Nelson (and Bill for that matter), Short Ride Lieberman, Blanche Lincoln, Evan Bayh, or any of the other ConservaDems in the House and Senate, you really have not been paying attention.
i have seen that .what i have not seen is you holding dennis kucinch to account for the bad actions of other dems like you do ron paul. that is the point
When was the last time the Dems were palling around with Racists and White Supremacists? Those are the folks that Ron Paul has failed to call into account. Yet he claims that the racist writings that went out in his newsletter just magically appeared as he didn’t know who had written them.
And I’m not responding any further to you. This thread is not about Ron Paul. It’s about the hateful words and disinformation spread by a Republican state representative in NH who is trying to use her hate to get the Marriage Equality bill in NH repealed.
do you think dennis kucinch supports racist-it is the process of the two parties to destroy people like ron and dennis by casting them as radical and trying to make them answer for every weirdo out there.. you avoid the question
This one only showed up recently. Still hasn’t figured out how to behave here, and tends to think we should be doing it hir way, becasue clearly we’re not activists or real Democrats or whatever the hell it thinks we’re supposed to be.
it is clear that your whole back and forth is to complain about the parties–you argument is always most our guys are bad all of theirs are– ron paul is the option to the kabuki theater
It’s clear you’re a troll, since you obviously haven’t read any of the comments you’re replying to.
Kucinich is a loser. So is Paul.
insulting people would seem appropriate for someone who thinks dennis kucinich is a loser–if we only did what paul and kucinich could agree on we would move this country to the best place it has been in a long time
Go write a diary about it, and try to convince people of the correctness of your views, instead of insulting everyone else.
why did dennis kucinich, “top dog” at firedog, choose ron paul as his no#1 choice for vp? is dennis really that misguided? unfortunately there are only three options out there– two corrupt non-repairable parties–and one superhero–the closer you look the better you like paul–peace is a powerful message
It’s going viral. It’s also up on rawstory, where the video works.
That woman is now a national idiot.
Cool.
It does point out that the stupid is not limited to any one region of the country but is surely spread around everywhere. Which we already knew anyway.
Not sure this woman is stupid – this is just hatred in a raw form. She should be removed from her position.
I’m so glad you wrote about this. I read a transcript of her diatribe yesterday and couldn’t get it out of my mind. So disgusting and bigoted.
I consider this level of hatred as a form of stupid.
There’s a lot of cleverness amongst the haters but that’s not to be confused with intelligence.
Well it certainly wasn’t intelligent to do it at a public meeting that is being recorded and YouTubable.
Fixed it for you.
It is all part of the Age of Stupid. It’s the standard recipe. Non sequiturs, half-truths, lies, prejudice stirred in a pot. Take out and sprinkle on a few We need to protect our kids or our country or our Christian values from whoever the enemy of the week is. Will serve as many as who already want to swallow such blather.
I think what bothers me the most in this is the cowardice of those who refuse to own up to their own prejudice but use a spurious desire to protect others as a justification for it.
Yes, but it is darkest before the dawn.
I think we’re poised for the Second Age of Enlightenment.
sorry , I couldn’t watch the video , but I get the idea
Hey BB how ya doing? Snow still piling up??
no snow here Nahant ! ground’s bare in my yard
Time to get the garden going??
nah , bare , but frozen solid
How about you? Are you able to grow at this time of year?
Will be starting peas, lettuce, onions and a few of the early starters in the next week or so… it is now 70!!! And sure gets me itchin to get started!!
Here’s the number of blogs and other media that have picked up this story.
You can find her email here if you’d like to send her a little message of congrats on her new-found fame.
Thanks for giving the e-mail. Just sent her a nice little note. :)
Please do keep it polite. We don’t want to give her any extra excuses after all :})
Nancy Elliott (R-Merrimack) is one sick puppy to even imply what she alleges as being part of the 5th grade curriculum.. WTF is she eating/smoking? Can’t be the water Cow Hampshire has very good water!!
I thought it was supposed to be more of an in-and-out motion. That’s probably why I never caught the gay – I was doing it wrong!
geez ,I couldn’t watch , but I can read , this woman is obviously disturbed
These people are obsessed with gay sex. Obsessed.
Perhaps she can do an audio re-enactment of the Mark Foley and Larry Craig cases too.
Sad to say this is 2 towns over from where I live.
-G
Ron Paul voted against his own Fed Transparency amendment, supposedly because of principle.
Stories like these are what led to prop 8. The biggest one I heard was “your priest will get arrested for refusing to officiate” which was BS, obviously and connected to a story in Sweden.
In San Diego, the news was pretty biased as well. The only way they can win is to lie – and then they claim to believe in a God who instructs people not to lie.
Book Salon up at the Mothership with Julian Zelizer’s Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security – From World War II to the War on Terrorism hosted by Fredrik Logevall
Thanks for the post dakine01 –
As per usual, the “Eeewww that’s Gross!” card is used. Frankly, I can’t think of a human biological function that’s actually beautiful if one uses the sort of clinical-mixed-with-scatological type words used by Nancy Elliot.
That’s the point. It’s not about biological functions/activities.
It’s about rights and relationships, and the Nancy Elliots of the world will always appear as idiots when they deny rights and relationships to others.
Thanks for helping to expose her.