In Support of David Blankenhorn

The two posts below address the vicious treatment of family scholar David Blankenhorn by New York Times columnist Frank Rich and describe the incredible climate of of intimidation and judicial bias involved in the prop 8 trial in California.

Blankenhorn's testimony in support of Prop 8 was certainly weak, as I commented in an earlier post. It turns out that the idea was that his role as reluctant liberal supporter of Prop 8 was to be complemented by harder, sharper testimony by other family scholars. But in the climate of intimidation and judicial bias that surrounded the trial and the prior campaign over Prop 8, these scholars were unwilling to appear. In the event, Blankenhorn was the one who had the courage to show up and face the thuggish tactics of the opponents of Prop 8, in the streets, courtroom, and columns of the New York Times.

The post from the Catholic Thing about the "Revenge of the Homofascists" gives a good idea of the tactics faced by the defense, including but certainly not limited to Judge Walker's conduct of the case.

Perhaps the worst thing Walker did was his attempt to get the whole show trial broadcast on television. He wanted the whole world and certainly the thugs of the sexual left to see and hear the troglodytes who oppose same-sex marriage. Given that even small donors to the Prop 8 campaign were identified on websites along with their home addresses and places of employment, it is reasonable to assume that pictures of witnesses would soon pop up on those same sites. Walker’s decision was stayed and rebuked by the U. S. Supreme Court.

Blankenhorn's letter to the NYT public editor about his treatment, with strong statements attesting to the quality of his scholarship from leading (and conventionally credentialed) liberal and conservative, gay and straight scholars, is well worth reading to get a sense of Blankenhorn's own calm and reasonable approach and the contrast with the thuggish attacks of Frank ("Smoke the Bigots Out of the Closet") Rich. No-one who has read Blankenhorn's careful and persuasive work, especially The Future of Marriage and Fatherless America: Confronting Our Most Urgent Social Problem could be anything but appalled by the treatment he has received. These books are two of the most important analyses of the social disaster, especially for those who are poor, wrought by the sexual revolution, easy divorce, disintegration of the institution of marriage in poor communities, and the subordination of children's needs to the freedoms of adults.

Support Blankenhorn by buying them!