Thursday, July 30, 2009

Matt Barber's ignorance is a blast from the past



This clip is from an old "instructional video," Boys Beware and is laughable when one views it now.

But don't be so quick to laugh. While the accusations lodged by this piece of garbage isn't as overt as they are now, the implications by religious right groups regarding lgbts and children remain.

Yesterday's nonsense by Matt Barber reminded me of Boys Beware.

Barber is trying to rally anger against the company Home Depot for "daring" to provide venues for children at Pride events:

Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel tells OneNewsNow the home improvement store is facilitating the exposure of children to sinful behavior.

"Out of some kind of notion of political correctness and being tolerant, Home Depot is contributing to all of this," he notes. "They're contributing to the corruption of children, and they need to answer for that."


Personally I approve of Home Depot's actions because despite Barber's hyperbole, the fact of the matter is that:

a. many same-sex families include children

b. not all Pride events fit the stereotype of half naked men and women running around in open areas dancing to disco music and bumping and grinding into each other.

Down here in Columbia, SC, we are proud of the fact that our lgbt festival is highly family friendly.

Barber's diatribe proves just how the religious right want to paint us into a corner when it comes to children. They are always quick to imply that we harm children but never address the fact that we are raising children.

Think about it. When folks like Maggie Gallagher and Barber talk about how same-sex marriage will hurt children, they never acknowledge the fact that lgbt families have children.

It's not an unintentional oversight.




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2 comments:

Jeff said...

OK,I agree with you. BUT, don't you think a lot of parades of gone from Pride Festivals to Freak Shows?

BlackTsunami said...

You may have a small point there. I attended the 1993 March on Washington and did not like some of the behavior of the participants.

But having said that, let's call out individual behavior and not the idea of lgbt pride festivals in general. They provide much needed visibility to the lgbt community. The ones down here in South Carolina have been fun, dignified, and very family friendly.