This photograph appeared in today’s New York Times. It’s of Allison Mackery and her five sons.
Four of the Mackery boys are enrolled in Scouts. Because of the organization’s decision to allow gay members, Mrs. Mackery—pride of Hanover, Pa.—will likely have her children quit.
Look at the picture. Look at it again. It could have been taken yesterday, it could have been taken 50 years ago. It’s the classic American photograph—house, bushes, everyone perfectly straight. The image very much reminds me of similar ones from yesterday, when families stood up against school desegregation, thereby beginning the private Christian school craze that overtook much of the south. Kids were used as props; were pushed forward; were asked their opinions even as their opinions were being formed by the ignorant minds surrounding them.
It’s happening again.
I don’t know the Mackery family, but it’s a lock that, one day, some (if not all) of the boys will come to regret this photo, and what it stood for. Maybe one of the kids will be gay. Maybe they’ll have gay friends, gay co-workers, gay bosses. Whatever the case, they will come to know gay Americans, and they will come to see it is, plainly, no big deal.
They will regret this picture.
I guarantee it.
