Today, I want to lay out 4 very clear reasons why Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Americans need to be alarmed at the Birthers and their influence in our government, and especially the role they will play in the next Presidential race of 2012. In some regard, it isn’t just the Birthers, but the Tea Party more generally, but the Birthers, as a group offer some clearly identifiable issues to consider, and are closely aligned with the Tea Party as a whole:

Conversely, the survey found that those who identify strongly with tea partiers are not at all sure about the president’s true nation of origin.
“It’s an interesting phenomenon that they are not only rebelling against the growth and size of government, but they are actually questioning the authority of the president,” said poll director Mark DiCamillo. (from Steve Wiegand’s article)
Doubts about whether Obama was born outside U.S. soil, and thus constitutionally ineligible to be president, arose during the 2008 campaign, and have been propagated since then by a “birther movement.”

1) Claim of fiscal responsibility means small govt, lack federal protection, regulations, etc.

While the Birthers claim to have a single issue- that the President wasn’t born in the US, and therefore doesn’t have the qualifications to be President, this has ramifications for understanding the authority of Government and of the Presidency itself. If Obama isn’t eligible to be President, then anything he says or does doesn’t have to be followed or respected. This coupled with the Tea Party’s desire to shrink government can mean that regulatory, investigative, and governmental protective services that impact LGBT Americans can be done away with. For instance, what good is a Hate Crimes law, if the Federal Government is too small or too understaffed to investigate and prosecute Hater Crimes? And Birthers who claim that the President isn’t really eligible to be the President can choose to just ignore any law he has signed  into law. A New York Times/CBS poll recently found that:

Only 32% Of Likely GOP Voters Believe Obama Was Born In U.S.

This demonstrates the large presence that the Birthers have within the Republican Party.

2) Parallels  between the Religious Right and Tea Party

There is a close link between the Tea Party/ Birthers and the Religious Right that some claim is no longer in power. The Reality however, is that the Far Right is every bit as active as they ever were, but now, they push traditional social agendas under the guise of budget reform and fiscal responsibility. This article was about Texas but the same thing is happening in many states across the country:

After the tea party helped stake Texas Republicans to huge majorities in the state Legislature last fall, the Republicans had a curious response. They did not immediately take on the state’s $27 billion deficit; instead they considered a series of bills straight from the religious right’s playbook – antiabortion legislation foremost among them. Even now, as the Legislature tackles the budget deficit, social issues are near the surface. A member of the tea party caucus proposed a budget amendment that calls for funding “family and traditional values centers” at some universities.(from Jon Brand’s article)

ABC News’ Huma Khan reports: Nearly half of those who identify with the Tea Party movement are part of the religious right, according to a Public Religion Research Institute poll released today.

Eight out of ten Americans who identified with the Tea Party were Christians and 47 percent said they were part of the Christian conservative movement, the poll found. (from ABC News)

Anytime the Religious Right is involved, it can’t be good for Lesbian, Gay, bisexual or Transgender folks.

3) Anti-Obama Focus

The entire Birther premise is anti-Obama, and while Obama may not have lived up to every LGBT expectation (most of these were too high for any mere mortal politician to achieve), he has actually done more for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans community than any other president- ever. The Birthers want to defeat the President who has been more openly and actively  pro-LGBT than any other politician or president. Do we really want to allow that to be taken away, and any of his decisions and policies reversed?

4) Lack of ability to accept logic and fact.

But the biggest reason to be alarmed by the Birthers and the potential for further damage to our democracy if they achieve more power come from the fact that they don’t accept facts or use logic. The whole Birth Certificate thing has been explained and proven, and yet Birthers just don’t believe any of that. Facts seem meaningless, trivial or nonexistent to Birthers.

The entire fight for LGBT Equality is based on using facts to dispute misinformation, and the expectation that fairness will prevail and is deserved by all. Those who have been opposed to Equality, come to see the value of Equality by listening to the facts and true stories of LGBT persons. Any group that can not see or accept facts that fall outside of their preconceived ideas won’t ever be able to come to the belief that LGBT’s deserve Equality.

You can’t work with crazy.

Photo by brownpau