Divide and Conquer the TGLB
My "Buckeye State" coverage continues today in Cyrsti's Condo as I read about this tactic going on in my hometown and perhaps others called the wedge. This comes from my hometown Springfield, Ohio Equality Group:
"Ugly strategies of division die hard in Springfield. When ES brought their message of equality to city commission meetings, you could see some members scratching their heads. Why were white evangelical pastors suddenly preoccupied by African-American civil rights when these conservative leaders weren't visibly worried about our community's racial tensions on the other 364 days of the year? Other communities have seen this odd behavior too, and some language leaked from the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage (NOM) clarifies the confusion.
Under a plan called "Not a Civil Right," NOM explains "the strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between blacks and gays." How do they do this? Trick LGBT advocates into comparing their trials to the African-American struggle for civil rights--even to the point of suggesting "civil rights" is an expression that gay folks would never in good conscience use if they didn't want to compare themselves to African-Americans. (Forget for the moment that women, ethnic groups, veterans, people with disabilities, and, yes, religious folks of all stripes also have civil rights.)"
Yes, I know you didn't see any mention of transgender women or men in this post. I will give Equality Springfield a break on this because quite possibly I'm the only transgender person most of them have ever seen and I have only been to one meeting. My second will be tonight.
It's also interesting to note that Springfield is one the last remaining towns of any size in Ohio still resisting insuring civil rights to all it's citizens and the good old "Tea Party" political folks had a hand in planting some of this plan. Remember them? Wasn't their original agenda a fiscally responsible government?
All of this makes the meeting tonight extra interesting in that a Tea Party backed candidate is running for a key city commission spot this fall. Bring on the fun!
**If you live in the area and would like to contact Equality Springfield, here is some relevant info:
Equality Springfield P.O. Box 506 Springfield, OH 45501-0506
"Ugly strategies of division die hard in Springfield. When ES brought their message of equality to city commission meetings, you could see some members scratching their heads. Why were white evangelical pastors suddenly preoccupied by African-American civil rights when these conservative leaders weren't visibly worried about our community's racial tensions on the other 364 days of the year? Other communities have seen this odd behavior too, and some language leaked from the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage (NOM) clarifies the confusion.
Under a plan called "Not a Civil Right," NOM explains "the strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between blacks and gays." How do they do this? Trick LGBT advocates into comparing their trials to the African-American struggle for civil rights--even to the point of suggesting "civil rights" is an expression that gay folks would never in good conscience use if they didn't want to compare themselves to African-Americans. (Forget for the moment that women, ethnic groups, veterans, people with disabilities, and, yes, religious folks of all stripes also have civil rights.)"
Yes, I know you didn't see any mention of transgender women or men in this post. I will give Equality Springfield a break on this because quite possibly I'm the only transgender person most of them have ever seen and I have only been to one meeting. My second will be tonight.
It's also interesting to note that Springfield is one the last remaining towns of any size in Ohio still resisting insuring civil rights to all it's citizens and the good old "Tea Party" political folks had a hand in planting some of this plan. Remember them? Wasn't their original agenda a fiscally responsible government?
All of this makes the meeting tonight extra interesting in that a Tea Party backed candidate is running for a key city commission spot this fall. Bring on the fun!
**If you live in the area and would like to contact Equality Springfield, here is some relevant info:
Equality Springfield P.O. Box 506 Springfield, OH 45501-0506
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