Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

Got a heads up from our friends at End Bigotry in Venango County about a press release from the American Family Association of Pennsylvania that narrows in on US Congressman Barney Frank.  In general, they are commenting on the need for Congress to move right.  I say “they” loosely because this is mostly about Diane Gramley. 

“We’ll put Barney Frank on notice.  ‘A Sleeping Giant has awakened and the majority of Americans do not share in your goal setting.’  Americans are tired of waking up to find an America that they hardly recognize.  This is not a game to them, it is a war to get our country back,” Gramley further stated.

In the wake of the attempted murder of Congresswoman  Gabrielle Giffords, I'm suprised the AFA of PA has left this up.  Declaring war on a member of Congress is a sad reflection on their tactics and feeds right into the “slippery slope” debate that has been raging for the past two days.

Suddenly “a war to get our country back” seems a lot uglier than just words.  Google cache here.

Diane Gramley is not harmless.  She's no longer tilting at windmills.  She has some serious victories in her back pocket and a lot of alienated, suffering people vulnerable to her hate speak.  I'd like to think Diane Gramley wouldn't shoot Barney Frank and intends only to engage in a war of words, but is her lack of “scrubbing” hubris, ignorance or something more?

UPDATE:  Just me.  At first I thought I was overreacting, but I keep mulling over the sheer amount of time Ms. Gramley has invested in her agenda. It can't be easy to turn out people at hearing after hearing much less slog through the pile of inaccurate information she relies on for her testimonies.  OK, that was facetious.  But I do worry about the tipping point.  When is Ms. Gramley responsible for moving beyond saying that Barney Frank is a fag who is an abomination before God and encouraging someone to do something about it? It is an age old question, but she's a very good example of someone who intentionally uses loaded, vivid imagery about the LGBTQ community to evoke hatred and repugnance.  I worry. 

sdf