Maggie Gallagher
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Maggie Gallagher is a United States writer and commentator who has written a syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate since 1995. Her most recent book is The Case for Marriage: Why Married People are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially (Doubleday, 2000), which she co-authored with Linda J. Waite, a professor at the University of Chicago. Gallagher is one of America's foremost opponents of same-sex marriage. Gallagher also says that polygamy is less undesirable than homosexuality.
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Double Standards?
In a 1998 article Gallagher castigated the ACLU for suing on behalf of teenage mother Chasity Glass after Chasity's high school chapter of the National Honors Society refused admittance on the grounds that she was not a good role model. Gallagher wrote:
And, incidentally, research shows that becoming an unwed mom is an equally large obstacle to eventually building a successful marriage; not only is it harder to find a good mate, but having a child with a man who is not your husband makes divorce more likely. All the way around these two girls have taken a step that may injure their own and, more important, their babies' chances in life for years to come. I wish them luck.
Yet, Gallagher herself got pregnant (http://learnv.ycdsb.edu.on.ca/lt/FMMC/hpteacher.nsf/Files/mcmanad/$FILE/mfgallag10.html) at age 21, refused to marry her child's father, and stayed a single mother for 10 more years (http://archive.salon.com/sex/feature/2000/10/30/marriage/). Gallagher's reluctance to talk about her past all while stating that marriage is the only way to raise a child has led some left-leaning (http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/) voices to blast her for hypocrisy and dishonesty.
Payola
On January 26, 2005, Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post uncovered records of Gallagher receiving payments of tens of thousands of dollars from the Department of Health and Human Services from 2002-2003. The payments were to help the Bush administration promote the President's "healthy marriage" initiative. During this time Gallagher wrote articles for National Review and other publications, and testified before Congress, repeatedly testifying in favor of "healthy marriage" but never disclosing her position on the White House payroll. When confronted by Kurtz, Gallagher claimed she was "vaguely aware" some of the programs were funded by the government, and that she would have disclosed her status but since no one ever called her on the matter, she didn't see the need. She also claimed she was no Armstrong Williams, another socially conservative columnist who was paid $241,000 by the Bush administration to promote various causes, primarily the No Child Left Behind Act. Michael McManus, the third socially conservative columnist to show up on the White House payroll, has a glowing review of Gallagher's book The Case For Marriage on his Marriage Savers website, and has repeatedly endorsed Gallagher's work and cited her work in his figures.
Quotations
Defending polygamy
- "Polygamy is not worse than gay marriage, it is better. At least polygamy, for all its ugly defects, is an attempt to secure stable mother-father families for children."
Bigotry
- "In the America that Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) dreams of, the idea that children deserve mothers and fathers will become the legal and moral equivalent of racism. Their logic leads not to live-and-let-live tolerance, but to an ugly culture war, using the law to root out public expression of such 'prejudices'."
Discrimination
- "Same-sex marriage advocates are saying there is no difference between two men being intimate and a husband and wife, even when it comes to raising children. They are saying that the opposite idea, that mothers and fathers both matter, is a form of hate, ignorance, animus, bias. That's why they claim that the normal definition of marriage is 'discrimination'." [1] (http://www.uexpress.com/maggiegallagher/index.html?uc_full_date=20040302)
Payola
- "Did I violate journalistic ethics by not disclosing it? I don't know. You tell me."
- "I should have disclosed a government contract when I later wrote about the Bush marriage initiative. I would have, if I had remembered it. My apologies to my readers." [2] (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=115&ncid=758&e=2&u=/ucmg/20050126/cm_ucmg/aquestionofdisclosure)
See also
External links
- Liberal rundown of Gallagher's donors and supporters (http://mediamatters.org/items/200501290002)
- Kurtz column on Gallagher's money trail (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36545-2005Jan25.html)
- short biography on uexpress.com (http://www.uexpress.com/maggiegallagher/bio.html)