Subscribe to Breaking NewsLowenstein: Anti-equality rally reveals divisive strategy
Surprising many, former DC Mayor and current Councilman Marion Barry appeared at an anti-marriage equality rally in Washington yesterday.
Marion Barry, despite his personal picadillos, was a generally gay-friendly mayor. As recently as his 2008 reelection bid, Barry indicated he would vote for gay marriage if it came to a vote, and he was subsequently endorsed by the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club for reelection. He, in fact, cosponsored the bill he’s currently railing against, that recognizes gay and lesbian marriages performed outside the district.
So what’s changed? What made Councilman Barry change his mind from being a generally progressive member of the Council to the person who spewed such anti-gay filth yesterday?
Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council came to town.
The Family Research Council, along with the new organization National Organization for Marriage, have come to DC to launch an all-out assault on the movement for marriage equality, and they’re looking to divide and conquer.
Knowing that the city is overwhelmingly progressive, they’ve zeroed in on two ways to fracture the community: along lines of race, and lines of faith. They’re organizing primarily through networks of African American pastors, with the goal of sending a simple (though fallacious) message: while gay rights are being pushed by a liberal, homo-loving elite, the real people of DC are decent and god-fearing.
By openly trying to create and exploit rifts in the city, the anti-gay organizers might have some success. But their pettiness also opens them up to criticism. What happens when progressive and pro-equality faith leaders step up to the plate?
It will be interesting to see this debate unfold over the coming months, because at its root it’s a belated aftershock of the nineties culture wars. We’ll see soon enough whether divisive politics of fear and exclusion are still relevant.
WAKE UP! Tony Perkins is not someone to mess with. He is EVIL and very dangerous. He has appeared on more than one tv news broadcast as a “gyest” expert on “gays and our evil agenda.” He always has that sick smile on his face and attempts to look as though he is the “2n coming.” Anyone who ignores this wolf in sheeps clothing is going to take a big fall.
I hope HRC is on to this guy although I’m not going to hold my breath. They would be fools to not adequately prepare for the damage that this “thing” will cause if left to his own designs.
What is the HRC and like groups doing to reach these communities before they completely turn against us? They missed this ship in California.
It worked for the anti-gays in California. I am sure it will work for them in DC.
.. and Marion Barry is just the perfect pathetic, quick to sell out, opportunist they could convince. How not surprising.
Amazing how people with messed up lives love to get on the self righteous anti-gay soap box !!!
Tom in Long Beach
People believe in god for the following reasons:
1. Their life sucks and the want to think ‘it all means something’
2. They are afraid of dying and the prospect of ‘not being’ (which is so weird to me–you didn’t exist before you were born! Get over it.)
3. They have a desire for superiority over others or ‘achievement’ relative to others and cannot do it through more constructive means (e.g. intellect, skill, compassion, caring, etc.)
4. The dislike or fear things and use their moral code as a reason to justify their aversions or fears.
5. The have power, prestige or wealth and want to hold on to it via the social structures of an organized religion.
When are people gonna learn: Religion is all about bad juju. Anything good there is completely eradicated by the bad. If you need spirituality try the only one that has is inherently incompatible with those above: Buddhism. And try to achieve a zen state while leaving everyone else alone.
While I too am disgusted by what they are trying to do, I does serve a good point to those of us in the community that we lead by example and show inclusion through acceptance and love! Make sure that we are not the ones that divide lines in our own community based on race, gender, religion, politics, or any of the sub-communities that make us a diverse wonderful group of human beings. In other words, make sure we don’t commit the same vile acts of divisiveness that they commit.
What a disgrace Barry is….besides ALL his obvious past/present faults..he gathers with these Hate Mongers against LGBT people (The Others)..since he/they have thier Rights..they feel empowered to trample the Rights of others…how sickening. I wish I was there with a sign…”REMEMBER CORRETTA SCOTT KING”? ….Unfrigginbeleivable! What is HRC doing to counter this??
It’s nice to see that former mayor Barry took time from doing blow off of some hooker’s breast to step up to the plate and challenge a bill that he cosponsored. Now, somebody pass him a rolled up $20…
I want to know who gives them the right to judge us? They need to look at their own lives, and really see how effed up they really are. Freedom is one right we are given being the “Americans” we really are, so don’t spread hate…looks like they missed the bus on that one. HATE
Maybe he really did too much cocain over the years. Marion Barry was involved in a major drug scandal when he was mayor.
I am appalled but not surprised. How do we “reach out” to bigotry like this???
Wow they had big old gathering of Imbeciles in DC……
OMG do they not realize what they all look like holding out their hands like that? If these kind are uneducated enough to think Scandinavia is a country then I guess it’s possible they haven’t seen any historical clips from Nazi Germany. More people need to see this video, it speaks for itself.
What a pathetic state humanity is in. The only time that we can ignore racism, the only time that we can all accept each other for who we really are, being truly color-blind, is when we are uniting to hate another minority group. Whites who would normally hate and avoid blacks come together in unity, so that they may oppress gays. Christians who despise muslims for being infidels, who have fought them since the crusades and now delight viewing them in terrorists, now come forth together in brotherhood. That black preacher was openly pronouncing how he was in a jail cell with a muslim and how they were both freaking out that D.C. was legalizing gay marriage. How sad. What hypocrisy.