Don Mendell is back - again

According to a breathless email from National Organization for marriage: School Counselor Targeted for Supporting Marriage!  Oh no! Not another victim. Not so fast. You might recall that Don Mendell is the guidance counselor who starred in a 2009 anti-equality commercial. The ending line of that advertisement was:

Vote yes on question one to prevent homosexual marriage from being pushed on Maine students.

Within the ad, there is a cutaway to an NPR piece, carefully edited out of context. The claim, from Frank Schubert was clear: Homosexuals recruit children. Moreover, Mendell himself made the claim directly in letters to the Editor of Maine’s Bangor Daily News. In those, he warned that gay activists were trying to "use children’s trusting nature to turn them against the natural law." Sorry Don but if there are consequences it is for reckless speech. 

As for Mr. Mendell, he wasn't "targeted." Mendell was criticized by his peers     and rightfully so. Aside from the moronic claims made in the original video and the inflammatory assertions made in his letters, as a guidance counselor, Mendell demonstrated hostility to gays and lesbians. Mendell didn't even have the common courtesy to call them gays, insisting on "homosexual" instead.

As for that criticism, it did turn into formal complaints. Those complaints were dismissed; Mendell was not. Mendell won his campaign to deny equal marriage in Maine and he kept his job. He made the choice to enter a controversy and become a public figure. He also made the choice to retire.

Frank Schubert has recruited this schmuck again, presumably to play the victim:

We are beginning our campaign with two ads that will run in rotation – “The Good of Marriage” and “Don Mendell--Consequences.” Taken together, they show how marriage as the union of one man and one woman has served Maine well for hundreds of years, and if Question One passes there will be profound consequences for those who express support for traditional marriage.

The first of these video polemics was released today. Here's the original spot.