David Barton's homophobia channels racism

For those who claim that racism and homophobia aren't alike, or that racism is real while homophobia is a term "created by radical homosexual activists," I turn to the words of pseudo-historian David Barton.

Courtesy of People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch (who will probably start charging me for using so much of their material), comes the words of Barton on a radio program. Barton was claiming that "anti-bullying" initiatives are really the indoctrination blueprints of the lgbt community to nab children. Now pay attention to his words:

There’s a whole lost of this that goes on that parents don’t even hear about but it is going on. All this bullying stuff, as Brian pointed out, it’s not the schools that are doing bullying, it’s the people from outside the schools coming in and saying “oh you got a bullying problem and we need to teach a course for you.” The people living there didn’t see any problem. But it’s these outside agenda-"

Doesn't that phraseology sound familiar. To those who fought the African-American civil rights struggle, the phraseology should sound familiar:

Here, more than anywhere else, movement leaders had to deal with a ferocious form of white supremacist resistance paradoxically fueled by a combination of outside intervention and the apparent futility of that intervention. In the long run the ICC order would lead to grudging desegregation and ultimately to new social mores, but in the short run, the perceived emptiness of the Freedom Riders' victory encouraged continued resistance on all fronts, including voting rights and school desegregation. With the help of meddling federal officials, outside agitators had invaded the state, yet the Mississippi way of life remained intact. Among white Mississippians in 1962, this was the primary lesson conveyed by the Freedom Rides. [Freedom Riders, p. 481-482]

Or how about from the words of Peter de Lissovoy, a civil rights veteran:

The idea of thousands upon thousands of young African Americans in the South being communists really would have been absurd, perhaps even in the wild fantasies of the southerners of those times. I guess the idea was that it was we "outside agitators" from the North who were communists trying to bamboozle the "good Nigras" of the crackers' fond imagination into communist revolution.

Back in those days, there was a belief among Southern whites that African-Americans were fine with segregation and the second class status that it brought. Many of them felt that complaints about segregation were the products of people from the North coming into Southern towns and riling folks up. They called these people "outside agitators."

The belief was a way that many of these people dealt with the hard fact that segregation was wrong and the only reason why African-Americans didn't complain was because they feared for their lives.

Just like racists back then said, "Our Nigras were just fine until them outside agitators from up North riled them up,"  Barton seems to be saying "there is no problem with bullying until these radical homosexuals come in from outside the community and rile everybody up.

Barton knows that the bullying of lgbt students is a huge problem no matter where it is in the country, just like those Southern whites knew that segregation was a problem with African-Americans.

But back then, racists didn't care what problems segregation caused as long as black folks stayed in " their place"

The question to ask is does Barton feel the same way about lgbt students and bullying.

Related web pages:

Bullying in Schools: Harassment Puts Gay Youth at Risk

The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network