Dangerous Right Wing Cult, The Family, Involved In Move To Exterminate Gays In Uganda

Headquarters of a lethal cancer in the heart of our nation's capital

If you visit us here at DWT from time to time, you may recall how excited I was earlier in the year about Nanci Griffith's new album, The Loving Kind, especially because I learned all about a Virginia couple, Richard and Mildred Loving, who traveled to Washington, DC in order to get married in June, 1958. It was illegal at the time for black and whites to intermarry. They were dragged out of their bed and thrown into jail cells when they got back to sweet Virginie. Times have changed so drastically since then. Last year 1,959,532 Virginia voters (53% of those who went to the polls), helped elect the offspring of such a marriage. But, in some ways, time has stood still for homosexuals, who are still discriminated against by the same types of bigoted and insecure sociopaths as those who arrested and persecuted Richard and Mildred Loving. On the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that made her marriage legal, a few months before she passed away last year, Mildred, having never spoken out on anything political before has this to say:

Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don't think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the "wrong kind of person" for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people's religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people's civil rights.

I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard's and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That's what Loving, and loving, are all about.

So, I was heartened to read this morning that the Washington DC City Council voted 11-2-- despite threats and blackmail attempts from the Catholic Church and hysteria from right wing political hacks-- to approve legislation that would allow same-sex couples to get married in their city. Forget for a moment that bigoted Mormon fanatic Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) has pledged to the satanic "god" he worships to use Congress to force DC to back away from the kind of equality for gays that was the salvation for mixed-race couples like the Lovings. Instead, let's take a look at something really insidious and dangerous to America that's going on among some of Jason Chaffetz' friends and neighbors, the demented, neo-fascist religious fanatics and sexual predators who live in the C Street House provided to the religious cult known as -- The Family.

Last night, Rachel Maddow did a segment on the relationship between the genuinely dangerous cult, The Family, and plans in Uganda to pass even more stringent anti-gay legislation, including the death penalty. Behind this move is a close political associate of both pop-pastor Rick Warren and the insidious Republicans and Blue Dogs who make up the viciously homophobic Family. Among the hate-filled bigots who make up The Family are Sam Brownback (R-KS), James Inhofe (R-OK), Jim DeMint (R-SC), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), John Ensign (R-NV), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Mark Pryor (DLC-AR), John Thune (R-SD), Mike Enzi (R-WY), Joe Pitts (R-PA), Todd Tiahrt (R-KS), Frank Wolf (R-VA), Zach Wamp (R-TN), Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC), Bart Stupak (anti-choice-MI), and Health Shuler (Blue Dog-NC). Villainous members no longer in public office include John Ashcroft, Dan Quayle, Ed Meese, Strom Thurmond, Jerry Ford and Richard Nixon.