This Ain't a National Tea Party Convention, It's an Anti-Gay Buffet

by Michael Jones · 2010-01-04 15:47:00 UTC
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Tea PartyWould you like some rabid homophobia with your tea? If so, you're in luck. The National Tea Party movement is hosting their first annual convention next month in Nashville, Tennessee, and they've invited a roster of speakers that together form an army of anti-gay talking heads. Looks like the Tea Party movement is just becoming another phrase for the religious right.

Among the notable guests? Well, a certain former GOP Vice Presidential candidate with a penchant for drinking coffee in front of slaughtered animals, as well as a current U.S. House member from Minnesota with a habit of comparing modern times to the anarchy in the book of Judges. And that's just the tip of this anti-LGBT iceberg.

Which is funny, because as a movement, the Tea Partiers are all about promoting limited government. Guess that just means limited government except when it comes to policing what goes on in America's bedrooms, and what types of relationships certain citizens can enter into.

Sarah Palin and Rep. Michele Bachmann, of course, are easy targets to pick on. They've both taken the modern day political soundbyte and transformed it into a work of art. Palin's got a gay friend who's not really her gay friend who chose a life of homosexuality, while Bachmann worries that there will be an earthquake of gay marriage victimizing kindergartners.

But why stop the nonsense with these two GOP superstars. There's former Alabama judge, Roy Moore, who accused President Obama of putting a homosexuality welcome mat at the front doors of the White House. And then there's Rev. Rick Scarborough, who has previously called straight people who don't condemn gay people cowards.

With new speakers seemingly beind added daily, there's no telling what anti-gay relic will be next on this squad. But really, a look at the folks participating in the Tea Party movement should send up a few red flags. Is this really a movement, or is this just an extension of the rabidly anti-gay networks that have polluted the political waters for decades?

Their movement would have you believe that they are conservatism reborn. But from the looks of it, it just seems like conservatism regurgitated. And a particularly anti-gay conservatism at that.

(Photo courtesy of cometstarmoon's photostream on Flickr)

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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