All of this anger against the Democrats and the Obama Administration, while appropriate and on some levels very useful, also underlines just how much off the mark the lgbt community is.
The point came to my mind when I read the following piece about GetEqual, the direct action group getting a lot of attention:
GetEqual has a real problem with the Democrats who have introduced (and often passed in the House) these bills for gay rights but they never go after the Republicans who kill these bills in the Senate. In fact, they don’t even go after the few Democrats who helped to kill these bills. They would rather blame Obama… over and over and over again.
The video they released features Obama, Barney Frank, and the HRC and outwardly blames them for the failure of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell to be repealed… But Barney Frank is a member of the House – which did in fact repeal DADT. DADT was blocked from coming to a vote in the Senate. Two Democrats from Arkansas helped Republicans to block it… But Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor are missing from GetEqual’s video.
One must really contemplate who GetEqual is really working for.
The piece was criticizing videos made by GetEqual attacking HRC, Obama, and Barney Frank for supposedly breaking promises they made to the lgbt community. Now I don't agree with everything in that piece. I totally resented the negative comments said about blogging buddy and mentor, Pam Spaulding. However, the piece got me thinking.
Earlier this year when Family Research Council spokesman Peter Sprigg commented on Hardball that he wants "homosexual behavior to be outlawed," where were we?
Or how about when he said he wanted us exported out of the United States?
And don't get me started on the many, many, many anti-gay comments of Bryan Fischer. Other than People for the American Way's statements, there has been no push back against Fischer or the American Family Association, his employer. At least not by the lgbt community.
In fact, when folks like Fischer, Sprigg, etc. say the things they say about us, where is our anger? Where are the vigorous statements from the Human Rights Campaign or those who consume themselves with labeling HRC as "Gay, Inc.?"
But yet some of us can heckle President Obama at a speech. And some of us can write pointlessly nasty comments on places like Facebook.
I think sometimes we are aiming our fire at the wrong targets. Groups like the Family Research Council, the American Family Association, etc hold a lot of power and I think it's because we haven't challenged them like we should.
These are the groups that have for over 30 years:
relied on the discredited work of Paul Cameron to smear the lgbt community,
truncated legitimate science to make us sound like the "diseased other" in American society,
took unfair possession of the word "family" in an attempt to exclude us, and
exploited religious beliefs and fears to get away with all of this.
So while we raise holy hell with our allies for not doing what they are supposed to do, the question remains are we guilty of the same dereliction of action?
Don't get me wrong. No group has ever gained equality without exerting pressure on its allies, i.e. those who hold the keys to this equality. But at the same time, one has to ask why is the lgbt community leaving organizations like the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for American, Focus on the Family, etc. free and untouched to continue their mischief ?
This isn't a matter of changing minds. It's a matter of drawing attention to what these organizations have been doing under the guise of "family values."
You see, when people turn on their televisions and see these religious right spokespeople being quoted on news programs, they aren't aware of the levels of inaccuracy they have stooped in order to form their anti-gay talking points.
And they will never know unless the lgbt community call out these organizations with as much vigor as we voice our displeasure with Congress and President Obama.
In the long run, no matter how slow and sloppy they move, the Democrats aren't our enemy and neither is President Obama. It's those organizations who exploit religious beliefs through lies, distortions, and junk science. And as far as I know, we have YET to come up with a plan to put them on the defensive or to make them explain their behavior.
Until the lgbt community makes a concerted effort with combating religious right groups who filter lies against us, we will get nowhere, no way, no how.
Not even if Jesus Christ were elected President.
13 comments:
Where the fuck have you been for the last 40 years? You must have had your head up your ass, because a lot of us HAVE been fighting the good fight against the evagleicals and the GOP. How dare you pretend that we haven't. Many of us raged against them as we watched our brothers and sisters die of AIDS, while they callously blamed them for their illness. We have fought long and hard, that is why it is now so offensive that those who promised to be our allies have turned on us. You accuse us of not standing up to the real enemy, yet you have the nerve to attack US, your own community? Are WE the real enemy? You should be fucking ashamed of yourself. As far as I'm concerned you can go fuck yourself.
I agree.
I would point to the folks at prop8trialtracker.com who are constantly pointing out and refuting the lies of these kinds of orgs (NOM, Focus on the Family etc), but we need more gay rights groups to do the same.
You prove my point. Could you divert that energy and rage - sans the profanity- to groups like frc and afa. They are to blame for the calamities you described.
I've seen your apologist crap spread across the internet like a plague. Here's a pro-tip:
The GOP and conservatives will always say nasty crap and do nasty crap. It's expected, it's who they are. They won't ever change. We know where we stand with them and we've been fighting them forever.
The GOP doesn't take our money, or our votes, or our time, or our hopes and dreams. We don't give that to them, aside from some deranged Log Cabinettes and the even more self defeating GOProud.
Who does get our money, our votes, our time and our personal investment?
The Democrats. They, ostensibly, stand for the advancement of our rights.. except they really don't. They aren't our friends. They talk a big game, and then once they have our donations and votes, they treat us as embarrassing lepers to be shoved back in the closet.
That is why the following happens:
"Yet we raise all sorts of hell at our allies for not doing what they are supposed to do."
That's right. We raise hell. They say they will fight for us, and then they fight AGAINST US. Why else would we be so angry?
The people who are supposed to stand by us constantly throw us under the bus... and what, you expect us to just sit there?
We have always known where we stand with the GOP.
We're just now waking up to where we stand with the Democrats:
THE SAME PLACE.
Friends are supposed to fight for you.. not steal from you, screw you over, and then blame you for the lack of enthusiasm.
Please wake up.
And anonymous, this is where the OP hits upon some truth. It doesn't seem that they are individually targetting every single member of the LGBTI community, but the community as a whole. It might count as a failure for the entire community, AS A COMMUNITY (not as individuals), to affect the change necessary.
You may be fighting the good fight, but as a whole, the community is too scattered to finish it just this moment.
@ fem - ultimately this isn't about dems and reps. It's about us and the religious right. Where is our fire or strategy when dealing with them
No, your entire article is one big boohoo fest for the Democrats, and you know that. The central argument is "Stop fighting the Dems, direct your anger elsewhere."
@ fem - what I'm saying is what I've been saying before obama became president. The lgbt community needs to stop sidestepping the religious right and expect others to do the battling for us
The problem is that the people who mainly make up and seek their information from religious based anti-gay hate groups are probably immune to criticism.
I take my criticism about them to the media outlets who continue to report their lies in service of "balance." That is where it will e most productive.
However, it is possible, at least in my opinion, that we can push democrats into at least some action. We lost the vote on DADT, but DADT repeal has been virtually dropped by the democrats until veterans involved with Get Equal started to chain themselves to the White House fence.
You criticize, cajole, scream at, and push democrats exactly because they can be pushed.
Gay rights groups continue to miss the real enemy.
i agree. attacking the dems and the president is stupid in the extreme. they are trying to do things in the right and proper way so as to counter the reich wings shoving it down our throats and activist judges and everything else they spew.
rome wasn't built in a day and obama and the dems are not going to change things over night.
i am 52. gays have gone from not being able to gather in groups of two or more (that is right kiddies, two gay people could be arrested for being together or a group for having a party whether they were in public or private, sex not involved!), not being able to send info on homosexuality in the mail, form organizations and a myriad of other things. these have all changed and mostly in my life time.
these people need to stop biting the hand that helps them and stick with attacking the liars and their lies.
it seems gays are getting pretty ignorant on their own fight for civil rights.
We need to go after the religious bigots no matter where they are. Be they a local Catholic priest, or a megachurch pastor. They need to be ridiculed for their ridiculous arguments against full equality.
I really couldn't give a damn about the Dems or Rethugs any longer. I and my spouse have decided that the American electorate will never be anything but right of center and will never accede to LGBT equality. Well, fuck them. We are moving to Canada. Goodbye American fuckwads.
with an attitude like that, how can we hope to win anything. if you can't think of yourself, then what about the youth who are coming up and can't leave. they need someone to look up to and stand up for them.
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