JANUARY 27, 1995

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

9

COMMUNITY GROUPS

The new Radical Right

The following is the first in a series, “The New Radical Right. "It was first presented to the West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in 1994, and since that time has been given to many other community groups. Representatives of the Cleveland Lesbian-Gay Center Speaker's Bureau are currently being trained so that this information can be presented to as many people as possible.

by Bill Henderson

On the weekend of May 16 to 18, 1994, a strategy conference of anti-gay organizers within the new Radical Right was held at the Glen Eyrie Hotel in Colorado Springs. It was an invitation-only event that was closed to the public and media.

The conference was organized by a group known as Colorado for Family Values and partly funded and led by a nationwide Radical

Right

Watergate and Ford's caretaker presidency, had weakened the GOP.

The old right-wing conservatives, still smarting since Barry Goldwater's losses of the 60s, sensed a groundswell of opportunity. One of many organizations that Paul Weyrich created was the Moral Majority, which he developed in the late 1970s to be headed by a televangelist, Jerry Falwell. The ultraconservatives then reached out to the Christian fundamentalists' revitalization movement through Falwell's TV ministry.

Falwell's contribution to the new Radical Right was opening the minds, and wallets, and purses, of the Christian fundamentalists, who by tradition were politically unorganized and

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group, Focus on the Family, one of the central four new Radical Right organizations. This conference featured the top tier of anti-gay organizers from across America, all of the organizations at the core of the new Radical Right, and one of the founders of that movement in the late 70s, Howard Phillips of the Conservative Caucus.

What was on their agenda? How to reverse elected officials' support of anti-discrimination legislation; how to avoid multi-million dollar statewide anti-gay campaigns like Colorado Amendment 2 and Oregon Measure 9 to overturn non-discrimination laws; and how to stop federal courts from overturning anti-gay ballot victories as unconstitutional.

They came up with a plan, largely developed by Ohio organizers, and inspired by the unprecedented success of localized campaigns across the state of Oregon. So, in case you had any doubt, the Radical Right is indeed an organized, nationwide, political movement that is centrally coordinated and focused toward its goals-only one of which is to maintain a system of discrimination against a class of citizens.

Let's place the new Radical Right into political perspective before we go further. Imagine simply, that I am at the exact, moderate center of all the American folks who claim a political identity. To my near right would stand "conservative" Republicans, as well as some Democrats and Libertarians. Farthest from my right would stand neofascist, paramilitary groups like Aryan Nation and the Klan.

Also out there, but far less openly, stand the increasingly influential "Christian Reconstructionists," theocrats such as R.J. Rushdooney and Randall Terry and their thousands of supporters, (including people like Paul Hill), who openly advocate death for abortion receivers as well as providers, death for "practicing homosexuals," and death for those who oppose theocratic-ruled government. Reconstructionists are at work in the background of Radical Right boardrooms, influencing the creation of a "Christian-ruled America." These are the same folks who led Cobb County, Georgia to "ban" homosexuality and end funding for the arts.

Between that extreme Right and what we have come to think of as "traditional" conservatives, stand the leaders of the new Radical Right. Actually, their movement is now nearly 20 years old, and their ideas are revived or repackaged ideology from the 1950s and 60s.

Potential for "revival" of the old rightwing came about in the late 1970s. Computers had begun to impact on organizing, and televangelism was drawing millions of viewers. Conservative Richard Viguerie created sophisticated computerized fundraising and organization mobilizing techniques. He was to a great extent responsible for the 1980 election victory of Ronald Reagan. Converging onto the political scene at the same time were Jerry Falwell and many other televangelists, and also the ultra-conservative political organizers Paul Weyrich and Howard Phillips. Confusion among the centrist Republicans, in the wake of Nixon's

passive. Their leaders were groomed to see the necessity of preparing the way politically for "the Kingdom of God," not just waiting for God to bring it to their believers.

Ultra-conservatives' contributions were to drop openly racist behavior and distance themselves from paramilitary and Klan-like extremists. The new Radical Right was created, with Falwell manipulating social issues against political circumstances, mobilizing millions of TV viewers and through newly sophisticated phone banking and mail order listing techniques, and creating fat political "war chests" in the new growth industry of right-wing interest group organizing.

During the '70s, Weyrich also created the Free Congress Foundation, and later the enormously successful and influential Heritage Foundation, both headquartered in Washington D.C. Initial funding for most of Weyrich's projects were provided by the Coors family of Colorado. Coors monies and Weyrich's astute political skills are the bedrock of the new Radical Right.

A new era of such organizing is now beginning with Weyrich's creation of satellite TV networks NET (National Empowerment Television) and C-Net, which is locally accessible only by frequency code, and used solely for mobilizing and training right-wing activists to assure local progress on their nationwide political agenda.

The anti-gay theme of the new Radical Right was formulated early on by Weyrich, who recognized its potential for getting attention, polarizing groups of people, and raising funds.

One of his beneficiaries of this anti-gay theme is Paul Cameron, barred from the American Psychiatric Association for continuing condemnation of gays and lesbians and falsification of published sex research data. Many of the organizations begun by Weyrich still sponsor Cameron's appearances and oversee distribution of Cameron's books and pamphlets through all Radical Right organizations.

After nearly 20 years, distinctions between the "political" right-wing and the “religious" right-wing are often hard to make. Radical Right organizing is dynamic and the leadership is now interwoven at executive and advisory board levels between "Christian"-sponsored and secular right-wing political groups, foundations, and lobby organizations. For example, from "the Old Right" and the first wave of postwar anti-gay activity in the '50s we can trace the John Birch Society to today's Summit Ministries of Colorado. Birch donations are often channeled directly to Summit Ministries, which responds with grateful "Thank You" letters to the Bircher donors.

Another example is "re-imaging" by adoption of a religious-sounding name and structure to earn more acceptance by the general public. So, we find an openly racist, antiSemitic, anti-gay paramilitary group, Aryan Nation, busily creating "The Church of Jesus Christ, Christian."

A far more threatening example of blending politics with religious organization is the Christian Coalition, and its "stealth candidates," trained to win school board, local, state and federal elected offices.

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