June 23, 2014

GOP Front-Runner Compares Gay Marriage to Polygamy

Republican House candidate Pedro Celis<a href="https://www.facebook.com/PedroForCongress/photos">Facebook</a>

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Last week, a top GOP House candidate in Washington state compared gay marriage to polygamy.

“Marriage is something more for religion to decide,” Republican front-runner Pedro Celis said Thursday when asked about his stance on same-sex marriage at a GOP candidate forum, the Seattle Times reported. “Is this marriage or not? Polygamy—is it fine or not? It’s a religion thing.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee has backed Celis, a former Microsoft engineer, to run against Democratic Rep. Suzan DelBene in Washington’s first congressional district. DelBene is expected to hold onto her seat in November, but national Republicans are trying extra hard to change that. The NRCC recently bumped Celis into the highest tier of its candidate recruitment and training program. Celis is now a “Young Gun,” meaning that the committee considers him to be on a “clear path to victory.”

In 2012, Celis voted against Washington’s initiative to legalize gay marriage. He says same-sex marriage issues are best left to the states.

Celis wasn’t the only one to express interesting views on same-sex marriage at Thursday’s event. Another GOP contender, former county council staffer Ed Moats, said “homosexual marriage” is “anthropologically regressive.” The Republican primary will be held on August 5.

Before this event, Celis had said his campaign was focused on Obamacare and jobs.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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