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Nancy Elliot's Bizarre Statements

By Fannie

You may have heard that last week New Hampshire state legislator Nancy Elliot claimed that, as part of classroom instruction, grade school students were being shown pictures of naked men and taught how to engage in anal sex. Her words exactly, were:

"I heard yesterday from a mother that in fifth grade in Nashua, they were given as part of their classroom instruction naked pictures of two men showing a presentation of anal sex.... Because we have made a marriage of same sex, they are now teaching it in public school. They are showing our fifth-graders how they can actually perform this kind of sex."

Elliot made this statement during a hearing on the proposed bill that would repeal same-sex marriage since, saying that this teaching of gay sex was the result of legalized same-sex marriage. Now, while "marriage defenders" tend to parrot this prediction of great harm whenever the pros and cons of same-sex marriage are debated, it is much more rare for them to claim that it has actually already happened.

Not surprisingly, it turns out that her statement was a lie. Indeed, her exact words a few days later were:

"I would like to apologize to Judiciary Committee, the Nashua public schools and its employees and the speaker as well as anyone else affected by what I said. I will try much harder in the future to verify fully my statement....I found that I could not confirm the accuracy of the information."

As sickening as it was that this public official didn't originally "try hard" to verify her facts before making a statement that could be so potentially damaging to LGBT rights, I do commend her for doing what so many others on her side fail to do. Namely, to correct themselves and apologize for spreading lies and dishonest propaganda.

Unfortunately, I predict that some anti-gay groups, individuals, and bloggers will still latch onto Elliot's original untrue statement and use it as "proof" that same-sex marriage harms children. Of course, just as Elliot failed to do, they won't actually complain to the police, schools, or school district about this fake incident that they'll tell all of their followers really happened. Nope. They'll just continue using this fake incident to promote their goal of opposing marriage equality, rather than taking steps that would actually stop children from being exposed to pornography in school since, of course, they can't "stop" something that isn't happening.

Amusingly demonstrating a vivid, if clumsy, imagination and deep thoughts about anal sex between two men, Elliot preceded her lie by saying this:

"We?re talking about taking a penis of one man and putting it in the rectum of another man and wiggling it around in excrement and I have to think, 'Would I allow this to be done to me?'?"

A fellow legislator called Elliot's statement "totally inappropriate," which of course makes it highly ironic that the woman who wrongly accused others of inappropriately teaching gay sex to others was the one who actually inappropriately tried to teach gay sex to others.

Full post as published by Fannie's Room on February 19, 2010 (boomark / email).