Chris Barron of GOProud has a guest post up at Pam’s House Blend where he explains why he agreed to debate Joseph Farah of WingNutDaily. It’s an interesting read, surely, and he makes some good points, but I have to take issue with this:
I can tell you with absolute certainty that GOProud did more to try win the hearts and minds of those who matter in that one night, then all of Gay, Inc. has done in a decade. I can also tell you with absolute certainty, that GOProud is the only gay organization – conservative or liberal – that is doing the hard work of changing hearts and minds.
Oh, ho ho ho, we sure do have a high opinion of ourselves, don’t we?!
Let’s see who all he just slammed. PFLAG? You’re doing nothing, according to Chris Barron. SLDN? You’re not doing anything either. All of the faith-based gay organizations that work to bridge the gaps between people of conservative religious faith and the people in their own families who are gay? Judy Shepard and her foundation? Lame. Human Rights Campaign, with their myriad low-level staffers who spend day in, day out working on gay issues? Apparently they suck too. Oh hi, Truth Wins Out, Good As You, etc., who wade through the muck of wingnuttia every day to respond to attacks against LGBT people from the very wingnuts Chris Barron debated Joseph Farah in front of? Apparently we’re not doing anything either.
Because, you see, Chris Barron went to Miami and talked to some wingnuts! And in that one night, he outdid everything that every other gay organization or entity in the past decade has done on the subject of “changing hearts and minds.” Since Chris Barron’s organization doesn’t even really believe in equality for LGBT people, but rather spends most of its time repackaging wingnut theories by sticking the word “gay” into them somewhere, I’m going to just write this off as pompous, delusional grandiosity, and continue to “do nothing” to change people’s hearts and minds, thank yew.
Feel free to list other organizations who, in Chris’s mind, aren’t as good as GOProud, but yet are doing the constant hard work of winning hearts and minds and taking care of LGBT youth, mental health issues, family issues, etc., in the comments section, because they deserve to be recognized.
