Chris Barron, leader of the gay tea party-leaning group GOProud, is not amused by the string of glitter attacks LGBT activists have been carrying out over the past few months.
The latest was in Minnesota, where a group of activists dressed up like “barbarians” and dumped glitter all over the waiting room at Marcus Bachmann’s Christian counseling clinic. The activists were protesting the gay reparative therapy Bachmann’s clinic engages in, as well as the ardent anti-gay rights stances Bachmann and his wife, presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, have taken in public.
But Barron says the protests are just making it easier for homophobia to persist.
“No rational person can look at that behavior and think that this is actually good for average gay people,” Barron told the DailyCaller’s Matt Lewis. “All it does is reinforce the worst, most negative, nasty stereotypes about gay people.”
Barron has publicly praised Herman Cain’s campaign, and has pushed back on claims that the tea party is bigoted. He told Lewis the glitter attacks — which have been carried out on Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann — are a tactic used to cast the tea party as homophobic.
“This is an effort by left-wing forces in this country to undermine the tea party,” Barron said. “They’ve done it on race, they’ve done it on gender — and now their doing it to sexual orientation.”
Evan McMorris-Santoro
Evan McMorris-Santoro has covered politics for TPM since 2009. Before that, he was a reporter at National Journal’s Hotline covering election 2008. He started his career covering local politics at newspapers in TN and his native NC.
Facebook Conversations
Questions about commenting with non-Facebook accounts like Yahoo, or other concerns? Click here to read the TPM Commenting FAQ.