From WayneBesen.com:
It is the 21st Century and the cover of Time Magazine has pictures of a chimpanzee and God under the bold headline, “Evolution Wars”. I turn on the television and a non-descript talking head is promoting the bizarre idea that tax cuts for the rich lead to increased tax revenue. I flip the channel and an effeminate man is lisping about how he prayed away the gay.
How did such weird and scientifically bankrupt ideas find their way into mainstream culture? The answer is at once simple and scary.
Besen argues that the far right has for years outfunded gay and progressive political voices.
I think Besen’s statements about conservatives are just a little bit too sweeping — not all conservatives are antilibertarian theocrats. Nevertheless, a $295 million to $75 million imbalance in donations to political groups may help explain, in some fashion, why irrational ideologies — creationism, reparative “therapy,” abstinence-only sex ed, and botched civil wars in Iraq — have won out over sound, fact-based public policy.
I agree that he is too broad in his accusations. I further think that there is too much of politics in this that has little or nothing to do with the ex-gay issue. Religion is firmly entrenched in the equation but really, I could care less what he, or anyone here, thinks about tax cuts or the war in Iraq. It’s excess baggage that just polarizes unnecessarily.
There is no real secret to this; the US is mostly conservative. I may not like that at times, but that’s life. In light of that, I think we have made great strides in the past 30 years, the past decade for sure. I’ve met many conservatives who are very open minded, which is why I agree with Mike’s first statement above.
There are so many sites where one can discuss political ideology, and only a precious few with good, reasoned points of view on the ex-gay issues. This is why I enjoy XGW!
Just one gay man’s opinion.
I think Wayne made a mistake here that is common in the gay political community. Often there is a lot of focus on building alliances; and this by definition means liberal/left.
There is a belief that by supporting every liberal position will result in all liberals supporting us. I’ve not seen a great deal of success in this approach. I have, however, seen potential allies driven off because they could not buy into the greater left agenda.
Some years ago I was involved, as a representative of a Republican gay organization, in a state-wide umbrella organization that lobbied for gay rights. We were one of the three founding organizations and were instrumental in its growth. However, as time went by, the various member organizations bought into the coalition mindset. It finally reached the point where the group was taking positions on partisan issues that had no direct impact on the gay community.
Although we explained that taking such positions rendered us ineffective when we lobbied Republicans, the coalition-builders won. Of course, we had to pull out of the organization to save our credibility. It folded soon thereafter.