McCaskill

Well, it was only a matter of time before Gallaudet University administrator Angela McCaskill was the focus of a political campaign ad.

The Maryland Marriage Alliance, the group urging residents to vote against same-sex marriage on November 6, has produced an ad that mentions McCaskill, who was put on leave from her position as the university’s chief diversity officer last week when it was revealed that she signed a petition to put same-sex marriage on the ballot.

The ad uses McCaskill as an example of the consequences that opponents of same-sex marriage can face if they speak out. “When marriage has been redefined elsewhere,” says the ad after citing McCaskill’s case, “people who believe in traditional marriage have been punished.” In a statement, the group said:

Our alliance of diverse stakeholders across the state have warned Marylanders about the religious liberties and individual rights that are compromised if same-sex marriage is made law.

Homosexual activists continue to cry that individual and religious liberties are not at risk. The suspension of Dr. McCaskill is proof of the disingenuous and untruthful nature of that argument.

Of course, the group doesn’t care to mention that Marylanders for Marriage Equality, the coalition fighting for same-sex marriage, came out first with a statement arguing that McCaskill should not have been put on leave for signing the petition.

The group also took out a full-page ad in an Annapolis newspaper yesterday defending McCaskill and saying that her suspension had little to do with the fight for or against marriage equality. “Unfortunately, opponents of marriage equality are trying to make what happened to Dr. McCaskill about Question 6, the November ballot measure that will allow gay and lesbian couples to get a civil marriage license and protects religious freedom. But her suspension from a D.C. university has nothing to do with Question 6 in Maryland. It does however have everything to do with being able to express one’s opinions, freely, and participate in the political process,” the ad said.

Yesterday McCaskill said that she was only exercising her democratic rights, and that she felt it was inappropriate for her to be put on leave for doing so. The university president issued a statement in which he said that she was only put on leave because of her distinct position at the university and the questions that may have been raised by her signing the petition.