Marriage Equality: Unsafe at Any Speed?

We've heard right-wingers cast same-sex marriage in the same light as incestuous and polygamous relationships, but a Missouri congresswoman has a new take: Letting gay couples marry is like letting a 3-year-old drive a car.

Vicky Hartzler, a first-term Republican from southwestern Missouri, made the analogy in remarks at the Eagle Forum Collegians Leadership Summit last week in Washington, D.C. The group is the student affiliate of Eagle Forum, a conservative organization founded by antifeminist, antigay activist Phyllis Schlafly.

Hartzler said government licensing of same-sex marriages could lead to "group marriage" or allowing "an uncle to marry his niece."

"So pretty soon, if you don't set parameters, you don't have any parameters at all," she continued. "The license means nothing, marriage means nothing. We're saying marriage is between a man and a woman. ... It's not a right in the Constitution as far as that goes either. It's not a right of a ... 3-year-old to be able to drive a car. The government has set some parameters."

Read more coverage at the Midwest Democracy Project blog and watch video of Hartzler's speech via People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch.