Washington Times Dismisses Gay “Marriages”

The Washington Times, a newspaper that openly shills for the Christian Right, has made its opinion about gay marriages in Massachusetts known by insisting on putting marriage in scare quotes whenever reporting on the matter. This, evidently, is supposed to communicate the message that they aren't reporting on real or valid marriages.

Consider this quote from The Washington Times:

Yesterday's events were a culmination of a three-year battle to legalize same-sex "marriage" in the state led by plaintiffs Hillary and Julie Goodridge. ... Same-sex "marriages" in Massachusetts began just after midnight yesterday when officials in Cambridge opened their doors almost nine hours early to issue marriage licenses.

The Goodridges were greeted by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino when they applied for their license yesterday. They "wed" yesterday afternoon in a Unitarian Universalist church. The other six Goodridge plaintiff couples were also scheduled to be "married" in ceremonies across the state. ... Massachusetts, the Netherlands, Belgium and three Canadian provinces are the only places in the world where homosexuals can legally "marry."

Mainstream news organizations did not do anything like this — no one can deny that the marriages taking place in Massachusetts are completely legal and valid. Putting the relevant terms in scare quotes thus communicates something false — deliberately so, in fact. The Washington Times is clearly blurring the lines between news and editorial here, with no shame and with no indication that they care about what sort of impact that will have.

Read More:

• Fundamentalism
• Religious Right
• Evangelicalism
• Evangelical Christianity & Homosexuality