Wednesday, November 28, 2012

NOM - 'Head for the hills! Gays are getting political power!'

The National Organization for Marriage is obsessed/disturbed/consumed with the fact that the gay community is obtaining a degree of political power:

Politically Powerless? HRC's Griffen Demands Obama Appoint "First Openly LGBT Cabinet Secretary, G-8 Ambassador" and "Judges as Well"

Are gay and lesbian people politically powerless, i.e. a suspect class who deserve strict scrutiny under the law?
Chad Griffen, president of the $40million-per-year Human Rights Campaign, fresh from four state vote victories and the re-election of a pro-gay marriage president, claims the political power to demand more appointments of lesbian and gay people to the highest political offices in the land:
"...The Human Rights Campaign's Chad Griffin, president of the largest LGBT equality-rights advocacy group and political lobbying organization in the US, is calling for inclusion in the cabinet and other positions.
'We made historic progress with President Obama in terms of our openly LGBT appointments across the board,' Griffin tellsBuzzFeed. 'We now have the opportunity, and I hope this president and this White House will seize the opportunity to have the first openly LGBT Cabinet secretary, the first openly LGBT G-8 ambassador, and across the board with administrative appointments and judges as well." -- GayStarNews

Politically Powerless? "Openly Gay Leaders Will Control Legislative Chambers in Five States"

Gay advocates often claim that lesbian and gay people should be considered a "suspect class" that deserve strict scrutiny. One of the criteria used to determine whether a class of people qualify for this designation is if they are widely considered to be "politically powerless".
Here is one example that would suggest that gay and lesbian people are not politically powerless:
Rep. Tina Kotek of Oregon will become the first out lesbian to lead a state legislative chamber after being elected House Speaker by her Democratic colleagues Thursday.
The Associated Press reports on the vote, which needs to be formally ratified in January. Kotek told the AP that she knows her success as an openly lesbian official has inspired other LGBT people.
"We all look for people out there who look like us," she said. "I have had emails and text messages from people who are very excited."
Openly gay leaders will control legislative chambers in five states, according to the AP, up from two before the election last week. -- The Advocate

No doubt NOM is implying that when our community speaks out regarding the need for measures to ensure gay equality, we are simply "gaming the referee" in an attempt to gain an advantage.

The way NOM claims it, gay equality laws are not necessary because gays have a degree of power as evidenced by the above blog posts.

The grand irony is that NOM won't acknowledge that its actions against marriage equality and other pro-gay measures is the very thing which is fueling the gay community's desire for political power.

In other words, we are seeing the need to work within a system that would ordinarily be closed to the gay community in order to change that system and ensure a positive future for ourselves and gay generations to come. There is really nothing wrong with this because other groups of Americans have followed this plan and continue to do so.

But if NOM is worried about the idea of gays working our way into the political system, then the group has  should look to its own actions to blame.



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2 comments:

RJ said...

So....could the same thing not be said about Christians then? With all their political power these days, why do they need protection under the law?

Leonard said...

This is scary...as our first act of takeovership I think everyone ought be given facelift coupons (to use as needed). Idiots. Where do they think we've been for lifetimes? One thing is certain: We know them far better than they know us -- shudder.