Bishop Joseph Tyson, who oversees the Catholic Diocese of Yakima, Washington, is the latest member of the Catholic hierarchy to speak out against marriage equality. In a pastoral letter urging parishioners to vote against Referendum 74, Tyson not only claims that the freedom to marry would harm children, but spins that claim to say that “it is actually offensive to basic human rights and equality”:

R-74’s conception of marriage is wrong from the start, since it presumes that marriage is simply a matter of what any two consenting adults desire. But this has never been the meaning of marriage, nor has it been the reason why marriage is recognized as essential to the common good. R-74 redefines marriage and therefore pays no heed to fundamental facts of human life and flourishing. It ignores the significance of the human body as well as sexual difference and complementarity, understood in their fullness – spiritual, biological, psychological, and emotional.

R-74 overlooks the basic rights and equality of children, and it dispenses with an appreciation for the unique place of motherhood and fatherhood. As a law, R-74 therefore conditions our society to forget or ignore basic realities of human existence, and, rather than foster human rights, it is actually offensive to basic human rights and equality.   This is the tragic irony: a law touted as a victory for civil rights and equality is actually a loss of civil rights and equality for the most vulnerable among us, children.

The language mirrors the strategy laid out in the infamous National Organization for Marriage’s “race-wedging” memos to “fan the hostility” between blacks and gays by suggesting LGBT activists are trying to co-opt “civil rights.” By focusing on sowing division instead of unity, Tyson is blind to two significant “basic realities of human existence”: that people are innately gay and that they are already raising children. In fact, 16 percent of all Washington same-sex couples are raising their own children, including 29 percent of couples who identity as spouses. If Tyson truly cared about children’s well-being, as he claims in his letter, he would make sure that their families are not treated with second-class status and persistent stigma.

Preserve Marriage Washington should use this graphic to describe itself, not its opponent.

The National Organization for Marriage-backed Preserve Marriage Washington is trying to discount the negative experiences of gays and lesbians by accusing Washington United for Marriage of lying in a new ad:

In a television ad which began airing on Friday, a mother shares the story of her daughter’s struggle to care for her dying same-sex partner, saying that after her daughter’s domestic partner suffered a seizure, hospital staff refused to telephone her daughter because they were not married.  There is only one problem: that is not an accurate depiction of the law, says Preserve Marriage Washington, the statewide grassroots coalition committed to protecting the traditional definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. [...]

Calling this a “pants on fire” misrepresentation, Preserve Marriage Washington Communications Director Chip White said, “This claim is a bold-faced lie.”

The anti-equality group makes the case that Washington’s “everything but marriage” law, approved in 2009, created hospital visitation protections for domestic partners, but that doesn’t mean the protections are guaranteed in each situation. What the law says and how a hospital reacts in an emergency will not necessarily be the same, because domestic partnerships are simply not recognized with the same familiarity and respect as marriages.

After New Jersey adopted civil unions, a commission found that those unions were not treated with the same respect as marriages, despite their supposed equality under the law:

Even if, given enough time, civil unions are understood to provide rights and responsibilities equivalent to those provided in marriage, they send a message to the public: same-sex couples are not equal to opposite-sex married couples in the eyes of the law, that they are “not good enough” to warrant true equality.

By attempting to rebut those seeking the approval of marriage equality through Referendum 74, conservatives have helped to illuminate that “separate but equal” can never truly be equal. Watch the ad:

The Catholic Church continued its crusade against marriage equality in Washington state this week with a video from Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain. Using religious language to determine what should determine state law, Sartain stokes fears that society will fall apart completely if same-sex couples are allowed to marry:

SARTAIN: To suddenly change the God-given and time honored understanding of marriage would be a very harmful thing for our state and for the world. Put simply, it is not in the compelling interest of the state to change the definition of marriage. There are many ramifications for such a redefinition. Suffice it to say, should marriage be redefined in our state the very foundational nature of marriage for the good and strength of human society would be harmed beyond repair.

Watch it (via On Top Magazine):

Suffice it to say, claiming that the Church isn’t anti-gay, just pro-straight, is no more convincing than white supremacists claiming they aren’t anti-black, just pro-white.