In the Teeth of the Beast

"C Street House"

I have many complaints about our President right now, but I give him a lot of credit for taking the Ugandan "Kill the Gays" legislation and all legal and religious discrimination against gays and lesbians right into the teeth of the beast at the National Prayer Breakfast.

Here is the segment from the Rachel Maddow Show reporting on this. It features our own Bishop Gene Robinson.

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Usually Democratic politicians tip toe meekly around the very powerful organization of senators, congressional representatives, governors, military brass, and corporate maharajas known as "The Family" that sponsors The National Prayer Breakfast. Both the President and Hillary Clinton made strong, forceful, and unequivocal statements condemning not just the Ugandan bill, but all discrimination against gays and lesbians before a hostile audience.

There were a lot of liberal groups who urged Obama and Clinton not to attend the Breakfast, but I think they surprised everyone.

I give Rachel Maddow a lot of credit for her efforts to bring "The Family" and its doings into the light of day, and publicly promoting the work of reporters (especially Jeff Sharlett) who've spent a lot of time and effort investigating this shadowy organization. "The Family" has been around since 1935. It began as an organization of wealthy right wing business people to finance and support Franco's Falange in the Spanish Civil War, and Mussolini in Italy. It continues to flourish today secretly financing and backing all kinds of right wing and supremacist efforts around the world.


One last thing: I wholeheartedly agree with Bishop Robinson that we must hold these American right wing groups responsible for this draconian proposed legislation in Uganda no matter how much they try to distance themselves from it. Uganda for them is nothing more than a laboratory to see what kind of punitive discrimination would be possible. These groups clearly and unequivocally want to re-criminalize and pathologize LGBTs. For the Ugandan government, the Gay Menace! is a welcome distraction from their own poor record, an opportunity to deflect the anger of their people.