GOProud is an ultra-conservative group of wealthy white guys, who happen to be gay. While they claim to only speak on gay issues, they enjoy palling around with Ann Coulter and other usually homophobic people. Not as friendly as the Log Cabin Republicans, GOProud openly endorses candidates that preach hateful agendas. However, outside of being self-loathing Teaocrats, GOProud doesn't usually try to mess with things that don't normally concern them. Well, until now.
GOProud leader Jimmy LaSilva will be speaking next week at George Washington University about the wonderful connection between the LGBT community and the anti-choice movement. I didn't realize there was supposed to be a link between gay rights and restricting those of women, but according to Mr. LaSilva there is.
I don't quite understand how a group of men who will never wind up in an unplanned pregnancy situation should have any opinion on the matter, let alone be able to state that all LGBT people are anti-choice. The anti-choice movement is also against birth control and sex education, the first not being of concern to gay men and the second possibly reducing gay teen suicide. I'm not terribly surprised that this group is anti-woman, but I think Jimmy LaSilva is way out of bounds here. How is controlling the wombs of heterosexual women a gay issue?
While I know many gays who are fiscal conservatives, embracing the pseudoreligious wing of the far-right is absolutely ridiculous. Attempting to gain the favour of those who think they can cure us by any means necessary is akin to the Lithuanians who joined the Nazi Party. Promoting the removal of rights from another group to save yourself is one of the most appalling and cowardly actions one can commit.
From supporting religious leaders that hate us to social policies that will drive America into debt to preaching an anti-woman message, I struggle to find out what, if anything, GOProud has to be proud of exactly.
Image cap stolen from joemygod.blogspot.com
I know Bruce Carrol, the GOProud Treasurer, and he has put forth the question on his blog (paraphrased):
ReplyDeleteIf we find a genetic test to determine a child will be "born gay", would it be alright to abort that child because of that? Would it be alright to change the child's genes to eliminate that "problem"?
I think that's one of the reasons GOProud is opposed to abortion and genetic modification.
"Attempting to gain the favour of those who think they can cure us by any means necessary is akin to the Lithuanians who joined the Nazi Party."
That's rather hyperbolic, isn't it? Shouldn't we move beyond preaching to the choir, as it were, and convince people we're not as scary as many think?
BTW, found your blog on Google and popped in.
When you consider the fact that GOProud has allied itself with folks whop think they can cure the gays via religion, I do not consider such a statement an exaggeration. One can be conservative without jumping into every pseudoreligious cause that the extremists support.
ReplyDeleteIf we have to prove ourselves to such an extent than it should be clear we are not welcome.
As for the abortion of those with the gay gene, I dare say that the majority of people concerned with such things would be those who believe The Gay is a horrendous condition. Myself, i would rather be aborted than raised by some Jesus freak whose sole mission was beating the gay out of me.
my grandmother spoke of the Nazis from a first-person standpoint. They were viciously Christian, anti-choice, anti-gay (unless they married other ex-gays), and anti birth control. It was a religious movement and people willingly joined this great moral cause. It began the same way this movement did.
Buying into causes that oppress others in the hopes that someone will like us is EXACTLY like the Lithuanians, exactly like the Vatican, exactly like the collaborators of our not-too-distant past.