Is "Pro-Family" code for anti-gay marriage?

[Fran Kubelik]

Just wondering. I was looking on the Obama site for a new yard sign and came across this:



Maybe I am being paranoid. What does pro-family mean?

[sakabatou]

1. Maybe...

Most of the CONSERVATIVE pro-family movements are anti-progress. Don't know about this one.

[Fran Kubelik]

2. I wonder if it's supposed to imply it without really saying it.

Like I said - I could just be really paranoid.

[Warpy]

7. It looks like an empty slogan to me

unless we get a commitment to raising wages and protecting people from predatory creditors. However, it's an attempt to disarm the lunatic right.

I mean, really, we all grew up in families. Some of our families didn't much resemble the norm of mom and dad and the 2.3 kids and the suburban house with a dog with hair in its eyes in the yard, but they were families. Yeah, I guess that makes us all pro family.

Were it a slogan on the far right, then yes, it would be a slogan against not only gays, but single mothers, divorce, out of wedlock birth, gay adoption, and even women working outside the home instead of being full time unpaid servants to the other occupants.

[TheWraith]

16. Yeah, you're paranoid.

It's just hitting back at the idea that if you're a Democrat you're somehow against families.

[Fran Kubelik]

17. I get it now. Thanks.

It was just a knee-jerk reaction on my part.
I just ordered a sign for our house. :bounce:

[eShirl]

3. I'd say yes, and also code for anti-choice

[dchill]

4. It's pretty much code for everything...

that's anti-American. Whichever way you look at it.

[eyesroll]

5. The "Obama Pride" booth at the Bay View Bash had the "pro-family" buttons.

I think it's intended as a reclaiming-the-language thing--at least it was, by the people at the booth. It makes sense-- I know you have a family, and I have a family, and everyone else has a family (no matter how it's structured), we want what's best for our families...how does that make us anything other than pro-family?

(I took an "Obama Pride" sticker, gave one to the kiddo... and some random stranger whispered at me..."you know, this is a GAY THING." :eyes:)

[La Lioness Priyanka]

6. maybe they are finally reclaiming the word family

pro family should not mean pro bigotry.

[insleeforprez]

8. I'm hoping that's what it means...

In current political language, pro-family does in fact mean anti-gay, pro-life, etc. Of course, at least with respect to gay rights, that's hogwash; I'm part of a family and I hope to start my own family later in life. We are all in families, so pro-family is *really* just another way of saying "I'm the better candidate."

I really hope that's what it is...

[Fran Kubelik]

11. Ok, I will take it that way.

Maybe we'll get one and put it in our window.

Our next-door neighbors have a "country first" sign in the window and a McCain sign in the yard. x(

[La Lioness Priyanka]

12. poor you. my next door neighboor has a sticker on their door which states

:this is a catholic home, no literature of any other religion needed

:P

[Fran Kubelik]

13. these neighbors also have Catholic radio bumper stickers

That being said, they don't grab their kids and run inside to hide whenever they see us. They may feel uncomfortable, but they do try not to let it show. We've gone out of our way to be nice to them, passing along hand-me-downs and kids' books for their younger kids.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

14. our downstairs neighbour used to bully lisa, but since he had the 'pleasure'

of meeting me, he hides away from us.

[Fran Kubelik]

15. Ha - good for you!

:rofl:

[Fearless]

18. And pro-family should mean ALL familes not just the Cleavers.

[yellowdogintexas]

9. My reaction to this sign was a big smile. It is an obvious slap at the right wing

religionists who have laid claim to being the only ones who are truly pro family. Which is not true of course.

This is a very outspoken message: "We are taking back the claim to pro-family!"

health care
education
day care
tax reductions for the less than well off
etc.

[foxfeet]

19. My reaction exactly

I take it to be a reclaiming of family issues from the fundamentalist mindset that has claimed those issues as their own.

[54anickel]

10. It's tied to the Matthew 25 Network which is trying to redirect the focus of

Christians back to the values of the Gospel = good news of God's Kingdom and what pro-family means in that context.

I think their supporters are all over the board on gay-rights, I don't think it's their driving force. I could be wrong and giving them too much/not enough credit in this area though. :shrug:


http://www.matthew25.org/about.htm

edit to add a link to some of their ads
http://www.matthew25.org/ourads.htm

[Smarmie Doofus]

20. Hmm... a bit of a stretch.

Although, I'll grant it's a little ( probably purposefully) ambiguous.

Which at this point is OK with me.

You could also interpret it ( i.e. when Obama is using it, anyway) as an in-your-face challenge to the assumption that the evildoers have the welfare of "the family" ( whatever that *is*) at heart.

[Karl_Bonner_1982]

21. Democratic definition of "family values":

Living wages, union rights, affordable housing and health care, good schools, etc. etc. Nothing that is culturally divisive.