So Ben Hall puts out a nice ad about himself and his wife:
BEN: I met Saundra in church, I was seventeen.
SAUNDRA: He’s wearing orange bell bottoms, white platform shoes, and I nudged my cousin and said, what is that?
BEN: I was the first boy she ever kissed.
SAUNDRA: I was attracted to his intelligence, but I was thinking more like pastor and pastor’s wife.
BEN: April eighteenth, nineteen eighty-one, seven PM. Married thirty-two years.
SAUNDRA: And he’s still never given me a proper honeymoon.
It’s a great ad for a politician. It humanizes the candidate and adds both a positive message to the campaign and a bit of humor.
Nice, right? I mean, really sweet. Right?
Not if you are a member of Houston’s GLBT community. As usual for this campaign, the media looks for anything negative to run against Ben Hall. In this Houston Chronicle article by Kiah Collier, she finds this:
Officials with Houston GLBT Political Caucus, though, said Hall’s message seems designed to juxtapose his values with those of Mayor Annise Parker – the first openly gay mayor of a major U.S. city.
“Ben Hall’s latest ad is a thinly-veiled ‘traditional family values’ ad,” said a Thursday post on the caucus’ Facebook page. “Get those homophobic votes while you still can.”
Are you kidding me? Go watch that ad again, I’ll wait.
Pray tell, exactly what part of that ad is “homophobic”? And why would anyone need to “thinly veil” an ad featuring a man and a woman that have been married 32 years? Since when did that become a crime?
Here’s a tip for the Houston GLBT community – stop wearing your knickers so tight! And stop thinking that anything and everything that depicts a heterosexual couple is “homophobic” behavior.
I was especially disappointed to see Houston GLBT Political Caucus President Noel Freeman chiming in. Noel seems like a pretty level headed, reasonable person. Hey Noel, here’s a tip for you: Have Annise Parker make a similar ad with her life partner! Just as Hall’s ad humanizes him as a politician, a similar ad for Parker would do the same. Not only that, it would help your entire community. Stop whining and complaining and DO something to change hearts and minds.
This nonsense makes it especially hard for people like me that are trying to encourage the Harris County Republican Party to reach out to the Houston GLBT community in those areas in which we hold common beliefs.
And by the way, Ben, congratulations on 32 years. You beat me to it by exactly 8 months – my anniversary is December 18th. Oh, and give the girl a proper honeymoon already!