Barney Frank isn't confused this time

From the wire services are reproduced in today's C-J...

Here's an example where Rep. Frank is not confused about the distinction between coercive and voluntary arrangements. In the economic arena, he conflates the two often. But in this aspect of the social arena, he's right on the proverbial nose in his critique of this one thing said by Rick Warren.

The longest-serving openly gay member of Congress said Sunday it was a mistake for President-elect Barack Obama to invite the Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration.

"Mr. Warren compared same-sex couples to incest. I found that deeply offensive and unfair," Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said in a broadcast interview....

Correct. It is inappropriate to compare a consensual relationship to a relationship that cannot be considered consensual (given the power of the parent/relative/adult over the child).

Gay rights advocates, who strongly supported Obama during the election, are angry over Warren's backing of a California ballot initiative banning gay marriage. That measure was approved by voters last month. Although Warren has said that he has nothing personally against gays, he has condemned same-sex marriage.

"I have many gay friends. I've eaten dinner in gay homes. No church has probably done more for people with AIDS than Saddleback Church," he said in a recent interview with BeliefNet. But later in the interview, he compared the "redefinition of marriage" to include gay marriage to legitimizing incest, child abuse, and polygamy....