By now you have probably seen the video clip of the small boy telling Michele Bachmann, “My mom is gay, but she doesn’t need fixing.”

Folks across the Internet have been lauding this boy for making such a wonderful comment, laughing about Bachmann’s reaction and generally making something great out of something that really isn’t.

Sure, it is fun to mess with Bachmann due to her rather backward actions and statements about homosexuality. But you can do that on Internet forums or show up at her rallies to chant something droll about LGBT issues.

But this situation is not one of those to be lauded. A little boy is being used in a political maneuver to attempt to get a rise. The boy is coaxed by his mother to say those words, sincere if they may be.

Honestly, can anyone out there tell me they think that little boy’s mother didn’t go to see Bachmann specifically to mess with her and that the mother wasn’t pushing her boy to go put Bachmann on the spot?

Bachmann is a political figure As such, she is subject to public ridicule; it is the result of trying to stand in the limelight. But attack her yourself, don’t use your kids because you cannot come up with a better way to get your message across.

I could be wrong and the little boy might have been excited at the prospect of telling Bachmann that statement because, despite his extreme youth, he is politically savvy enough to understand the media machine and who/what Bachmann stands for. But I sincerely doubt it.

I see this as being nearly as bad as the Westboro Baptist Church using children to hold their signs of hate at street corners.

Children are not a political tool. They should not be used for leverage. Sometimes the images of children in poverty or a war zone are efficient at portraying a message that is being ignored. But coaxing a little kid to walk up and deliver a message to a politician when the kid doesn’t want to is poor form, and LGBT rights are not an issue being ignored.

For anyone saying the kid wasn’t pushed into this, watch his hesitation. Kids are often shy, certainly, but it appears the kid did not want to tell Bachmann the message.

It is entirely possible the boy’s message isn’t even his own. Imagine if the mother told the little boy that that woman, Bachmann, said mommy was broken because of being gay or asking her son if he thought mommy was broken because she is gay. The little boy naturally wants to defend his mother, who he loves, by saying she isn’t broken. And so the message for Bachmann comes about all the while the little boy doesn’t fully understand what it is that is going on.

Putting the conspiracy theory aside, the kid probably intended the message for his mother’s ears, not for others, as a sign of support for an issue his mother was probably complaining about. It is the same as a child seeing his mother cry and saying, “Don’t cry, mommy, everything will be OK.”

Again, I seriously doubt the kid wanted to go to see Bachmann so he could give her a piece of his mind. If it comes out later that this kid is one of the youngest political activists working diligently and regularly toward LGBT equality, I’ll happily eat my words.

This was just another attempt to cast Bachmann in a bad light and grab some attention for the LGBT cause.

Come on folks, play a little bit better, take the higher road. The ignorant are going to use attack methods for media attention in a manner such as this. LGBT rights are something that should be in place because sexual orientation has diddly-squat to do with shared incentives offered to American citizens; it is a religious issue lingering in our legal system because some folks cannot separate religion from government and like following antiquated notions rather than adapting to the times.

When you sink to their level, you demonstrate further ignorance.

Stop applauding this video. You are just applauding the other side of a tarnished coin. If someone had brought their kid up to tell Bachmann “thank you” for “helping” their family member in one of those “pray the gay away” nonsense meetings, many of the same folks supporting this video would be yelling at the top of their lungs about the injustice of using video of a child to push an agenda.

This is hypocrisy — well-intended hypocrisy, but hypocrisy nevertheless.

Don’t give in to the cheap media grabs; there are enough of us in the media industry that do so already. If you believe LGBT rights to be an issue that shouldn’t even be a question, be the better person and get your message across without pushing little kids into the political arena; they will have many years with which to make asses or heroes out of themselves when they are older.