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Barney Frank calls Log Cabin "Uncle Toms"



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Chris Geidner at Buzzfeed:

"When they tell us that they're happy to be Republicans because they're getting acceptance and civility, I gotta say that I am again inclined to think that they're called the Log Cabin club because their role model is Uncle Tom," Frank said as DNC treasurer Andrew Tobias and others looked on at the conclusion of his speech to the group, prompting a mixed reaction from the crowd.

Uncle Tom, the name of the leading character in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, has become a pejorative term used to describe members of a minority group seen as helping in their group's oppression.
The lead gay groups are all quickly distancing themselves from Barney.Putting aside for a moment the "Uncle Tom" appellation, I might take issue with Barney singling out Log Cabin. GOProud is the self-loathing gay Republican group, not Log Cabin.

Once upon a time, like ten years ago, Log Cabin leaned more Republican than gay (meaning, they seemed intent on doing anything the GOP wanted, supported any anti-gay administration nominee, like John Ashcroft, in a never-ending quest for self-affirmation). Since then, they've become a true gay rights group working with and in the Republican party, but in the end, they have been working for our rights. And you can't fault that.

The gay Republican group that has issues with their sexual identity and self-respect is GOProud.

The organization doesn't seem to be much more than a gay-friendly beard for anti-gay Republicans. They seem to exist for no other purpose than to provide cover for the GOP to do nothing to advance the cause of gay civil rights. GOProud can argue all it wants that tax cuts are a gay rights issue. They're not. Unless the environment is a gay issue, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and nuclear non-proliferation, and banking reform.

They also, sadly, provide cover for gay men who appear to have little interest in actually doing anything to advance their own freedom.I don't know if that makes you an Uncle Tom, but it definitely makes you a very troubled Mary.

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