Arkansas isn’t often stereotyped as a hub for reason, rationality or civilization, and “Arkansas Family Council Action Committee” does have an ominous ring to it. And sure enough, it was behind a 2007 state referendum that would ban all adoptions by unmarried couples – the explicit purpose being of course to prevent gay couples from adopting (they really, really hate them), but the referendum targeted at all unmarried couples since, as its executive director Jerry Cox put it, such a proposal “would better withstand a judge’s review.” Which is, of course, rather blithely admitting that the motivation was rank bigotry. It wasn’t very successful. And when the courts decided to overturn the constitutional ban on gay marriage, Cox argued that it was “judicial tyranny”, which is of course just a stupid way of saying that he wanted a different outcome.
Cox, though, has his eyes on matters outside of Arkansas as well. For instance, regarding California’s Harvey Milk Day – a state holiday – Cox warned everyone that by honoring Milk, children will be forced to cross-dress and have mock gay weddings, while complaining that they never honor religious right leaders, something for which he might inadvertently have provided a reason.
His group has also a long history of trying to convince state legislators that helping the poor is not a government responsibility because family values.
Diagnosis: Oh, I don’t know. Evil, twisted, sick fundamentalist with the reasoning skills of the Taliban version of whale.to, perhaps?