Friday, December 30, 2011

Cardinal George Says Gays = Klan, but What Does the Klan Say about Gays?



The past-president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Francis George, says that gays are like the Ku Klux Klan.

But here's what the Jewish Anti-Defamation League says about the Klan:

After a period of relative quiet, Ku Klux Klan activity has spiked noticeably upwards in 2006, as Klan groups have attempted to exploit fears in America over gay marriage, perceived “assaults” on Christianity, crime and especially immigration.

And here's what the Southern Poverty Law Center says about the Klan:

The Ku Klux Klan, with its long history of violence, is the most infamous - and oldest - of American hate groups. Although black Americans have typically been the Klan's primary target, it also has attacked Jews, immigrants, gays and lesbians and, until recently, Catholics.

And, if you can stomach the raw bigotry (NSFW, and keep an alcohol swab ready to wipe your computer), here's what the White Camelia [sic] Knights of the Klan (Texas) and the Western Mass Division of the Klan say about homosexuality and those who are gay.  If you care to rummage around in the slimy sewers of the internet a bit more, you can find any number of Klan or Klan-oriented sites like these two making similarly vile statements about what will happen if the churches let the queers through the doors as they did people of color (though that's not the term these sites use to refer to African Americans), and what will happen if they permit the queers to adopt children.

Vile.  Wallowing in filth and hatred.  And--I heistate to say this, both because it's deeply sad and it will be regarded as inflammatory--this vile rhetoric wallowing in filth and hatred is not entirely removed from the position taken by George and his fellow bishops towards their gay brothers and sisters.

The graphic is a photo of one of the most recent Klan rallies held in the U.S.--in this case, at Augusta State University (Georgia) in October 2010, when the Klan marched to support student Jennifer Keeton, after she sued the school when it required her to learn more about homosexuality and stop using her position as a social work counselor in the school's graduate program to inform gays that they were sinners in need of redemption.  About a month prior to this, the Klan rallied at Ellijay, Georgia, to condemn homosexuals, immigrants, African Americans, sex offenders, and President Obama.

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