Conditional Family Values

Pam points to an article about Florida Republican Senate candidate Randall Terry's decision to leave two adopted children out of the family photo on his website—one of whom is gay and one of whom is a single mother. (Terry is also the founder of the odious anti-abortion group Operation Rescue.)

Among the conservative Christian's pledges are preserving traditional marriage and opposing gay adoptions. He has touted efforts to stop abortions. His campaign mailers sum up the value he puts on family: they show a picture with his wife, a daughter and three grinning young sons taken before a fourth was born this summer.

But Terry's adopted son Jamiel says the picture is missing two people: he and his sister Tila, also adopted. Both have been estranged from Terry since Jamiel came out as a gay man and Tila had a child out of wedlock.

He sure found room for that flag, though.

Jamiel Terry said the self-image that his father is crafting and the campaign message about strong families ignores part of his own family history. He said voters have a right to know about that.

"He is very big on image," Jamiel Terry said. "In a large way Tila and I mess up that image."

..."He has tried to say abortion should not exist because families and churches should step in," Jamiel Terry said. "When his own daughter is pregnant, he refuses to help her."

Randall has a good explanation for why his two adopted children are not in the picture, though: "The reason we don't have a photo with Jamiel and Tila is that we haven't been in the same room with them in about three years." Ah, perfectly normal for a loving family.

(Crossposted at AlterNet PEEK.)