Anti-gay views in Princeton

Scott Weingart of Princeton
    By any objective measure, Princeton is a liberal town. Together, Township and Borough residents cast 79 percent of their votes for Barack Obama in last November’s election. Princeton is home to the state’s only openly LGBT legislator, and Princeton University undergraduates voted by overwhelming majorities to support marriage equality both in 2005 and 2008.
   However, the recent publicity surrounding the National Organization for Marriage, an anti-gay group that moved to Princeton in 2007 and was the largest contributor in support of California’s Proposition 8, is giving the town a bad reputation. The group bills itself as being “Princeton-based,” and media reports across the country have associated the organization with our town.
   In an op-ed piece in Sunday’s New York Times, Frank Rich characterized Princeton as a hotbed of anti-marriage equality activism, while suggesting that “Beyond Princeton, most straight citizens merely shrugged as gay families celebrated in Iowa and Vermont.”
   A year before NOM’s arrival, The Nation carried an article entitled “Princeton Tilts Right” describing the political activism of Professor Robert George, the mastermind of the anti-gay right. These stories give the impression that Princeton is a homophobic town.
   If residents, students, businesses and local leaders do not take steps to protect this town’s image, Princeton will increasingly be seen as an intolerant place. Potential tourists and shoppers will take their money elsewhere. Fewer people will want to move here, and the university will not attract as many talented students. NOM has the right to argue for whatever definition of marriage they want, but we should not allow them to define this community as a bastion of bigotry. This community and its leaders cannot afford to stand by while NOM tries to turn our beautiful town into Ground Zero for hate.
Scott Weingart
Princeton