Santorum definition

Black leaders on the extremes of the movement

Every movement has a continuum of rebels, from the most militant to the most complacent. For every Frederick Douglass there was an Uncle Tom. The founding of Israel, the Iranian and American revolutions, the ending of apartheid, all had leaders on both extremes. The civil rights movement had Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Junior. While both wanted equality of the race, they went about it using different methods and the followers chose one path, the other, or somewhere in between.

Unfortunately, each of these movements had a lunatic fringe whose efforts, while ostensibly driving toward the same goal, actually worked against it by hardening the majority’s hearts against it. Protesters raping female journalists in Tahrir square, Black Panthers murdering police officers, Zulus shouting ‘Kill the Boer’ and American revolutionaries looting Tory properties are examples of this lunatic fringe.

There is currently a movement in the US to afford marriage rights to the gay population. This movement, like those mentioned above, has its continuum of rebels who use techniques ranging from introducing gay families in prime time TV shows to fighting off the Californian referendum in the higher courts.  
While this battle is being fought in the legislative bodies of the states and attempts are being made to force a Federal decision on it, many elected officials have been asked what their stance is on this issue. Senator Rick Santorum has staked out his claim to stand directly against this movement. That is his right and the place to oppose him is in the ballot box.

This movement has its lunatic fringe as well, hurting the efforts of the mainstream. Unfortunately, this fringe has take the unique step of defining Santorum in the Urban Dictionary as a disgusting by-product of anal sex. They then used social media to force this definition to become one of the top results to a Google search on the senator’s name.

I notice that the right is fighting back and the definition is now no longer the number 1 result.
At first, this seems like a funny practical joke.

But is that the picture gay rights activists want to evoke in the minds of those who are deciding if it is a good idea to afford full marriage rights to this population? Wouldn’t you rather have the majority thinking of a gentle, committed couple who are happily raising children than the picture the above definition puts in our minds, or sex in airport bathrooms or rest areas or any of the other unsavory images of homosexuality?

Mitchell and Cameron with their baby in 'Modern Family'

I think it is time that the leaders of the gay rights movement policed its lunatic fringe, took down the offensive references and engaged their political foes in honest discourse. That is leadership.