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The Distance
The Distance
The ACLU Is A Homophobic Hate Organization

The ACLU Is A Homophobic Hate Organization

Filed under: Why We Fight

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Matt Osborne
May 16, 2023
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The ACLU Is A Homophobic Hate Organization
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"Whereas the ACLU had once been a vital part of the movement apparatus which had made marriage equality possible, seeming to win the very fight which had brought me to the ACLU in the first place, and made me such a defender for so long, now the organization is a homophobic hate group. Now I would not spit on the ACLU if it was on fire. In fact, where are the metaphorical matches?" -
William A. Ferguson

It was a warm night on Susan’s front porch. She was an organizer for the National Organization for Women and probably a lesbian, though I never asked. My parents were inside hobnobbing with the other adults. I was with the kids, which is to say I was the youngest at 15, with the other people on that porch being cigarette smokers of various ages. I was not smoking a cigarette though. I was watching Byron smoke cigarettes and hold his own court.

Ronald Reagan was president. The party had gathered to create a membership chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. That storied civil society organization seemed more necessary than ever, even in a small southern town.

Byron owned the comic book store. He was an artist by education, and in later years, I would imagine him as Ignatius J. Reilly while I read John Kennedy O’Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces. Byron never quite fit the world. He was too well-read, too enlightened, too sissy, too fat. He loved his family but could never have thei…


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