Supreme Court DOMA Reaction: The Family Research Council's Social Media Skills Are About As Bad As You'd Expect

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court declared the Defense of the Marriage Act unconstitutional, recognizing homosexual and heterosexual couples as equal under the law and sparking celebration parties and marriages throughout the country. Predictably, the ruling has also unleashed a reactionary wave of campaigns and attacks by right-wing conservative organizations.

One of these organizations is the Family Research Council (FRC), a think-tank whose mission is to "advance faith, family and freedom in public policy and the culture from a Christian worldview." According to RightWingWatch.org, since its founding in 1983, FRC has been "working against reproductive freedom, sex education, equal rights for gays and lesbians and their families," among many others. In the past, it has boycotted Disney for being gay-friendly, and in September 2001 attacked George W. Bush for his "implicit endorsement of the homosexual political agenda" when he appointed two openly gay men to his administration. More notably/offensively, it strongly promotes the "ex-gay" movement — which includes "reparative therapy" that seeks to turn gays and lesbians into heterosexuals — in its effort to prevent members of the LGBT community from gaining civil rights, even though professional organizations such as the American Psychological Association have published reports finding the results of such therapy fruitless.

Since the June 26 Supreme Court rulings, FRC has stepped up its anti-gay campaigns. One of them is Call2Fall, a national prayer effort first launched in 2009, calling on churches and individuals to "pray for our nation and repent before God." Here's what they posted on their Facebook page on the day of the event:

Offended? Here's a little comic relief to hopefully cheer you up. Presenting, in all seriousness, their double-entendre-ridden slogan: "On our knees for America."

The logo of this fiercely anti-gay campaign, as AmericaBlog has also pointed out, "appears to be of a man performing oral sex." (The blog also likens FRC's attempt to appeal to American youth — by replacing the "to" with a numerical "2" — to other unintentional, "unfortunate moves in American politics," such as the Tea Party's "teabagging" movement and the National Organization for Marriage's 2M4M campaign in the past few years.)

The Call2Fall logo has gone viral, delighting gays and satirical news sites alike. Online magazine Wonkette has since launched a Photoshop contest for their readers, "to remix the images and text from Call2Fall to their hearts' content."

I respect the freedom of speech and of association, and this article is not an attack on FRC for their campaign, although I am not of the same opinion as they, and do not believe that their message with resonate among many. But somebody needs to tell these guys to check their slogans for double entendres before there are more people who see their campaigns as a joke than those who take them seriously. UrbanDictionary exists for a reason. Use it.