MAY 19, 1995 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 9

SPEAK OUT

The mainstream Right has a lot in common with militias

by Scot Nakagawa

The intense media attention focused on the April 19 federal building bombing in Oklahoma City has triggered a public debate on citizen militias and on the consequences of growing right wing resentment toward government. In the wake of the tragedy, a terrified public appears to be struggling to understand the threat posed by these militant groups.

However, trying to understand the militias and the danger they pose by studying the bombing and the militias' self-professed hatred of government is like trying to understand the entire gay-lesbian-bisexualtransgender community on the basis of one night at a gay bar. The citizen militia movement is a complex phenomenon reflective of a fast-growing reactionary sentiment with consequences for all of us.

The citizen militia movement is actually one faction within a broader right wing backlash against democratic values. The militias are situated to the right of more mainstream rightists such as Pat Buchanan, and are closely tied to white supremacist movements like the Posse Comitatus, the Ku Klux Klan, Christian Patriots, and Christian Identity. When militiamen talk about their "anti-government" agenda, we should hear: "anti-gay, antiSemitic, anti-woman, anti-democratic, and anti-racial justice" agenda.

The militias' proposed alternative to "big bad government” is a return to a society ruled by an unamended Constitution constructed to protect the rights of white property owners, and intended to exclude women and people of color from participation in the franchise.

Former Center for Democratic Renewal research director Leonard Zeskind writes, "It has the smell of yesteryear-states' rights and armed vigilante gangs-but the militias are now the most popular vehicle to the right of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition. Like the Posse Comitatus 15 years ago, the body work is painted with religion, patriotism and the U.S. Constitution, but the motor is antiSemitism and racism, and the drivers are white supremacists." (The Dignity Report, newsletter of the Coalition for Human Dignity)

The militia movement is powered by a growing fear of white male dis-privilege. In an economy in which temporary employment agencies have become our largest private employers, and American workers' standard of living has dropped to pre-1953 levels (Jobs with Justice), rightists such as the militiamen are growing increasingly nostalgic for a time when white male entitlements went largely unchallenged.

In this respect, the militiamen are part of a growing popular phenomena.

Perhaps this is the most important aspect of the militia movement that is being overlooked by the mainstream media. In spite of the more bizarre aspects of the racial and religious agendas of some of their white

supremacist members, militiamen share many things in common with more mainstream elements of the right wing.

The militiamen contend that government is failing their members-white men-because of the influence of the civil rights lobby (“racial preferences” and “special rights"), Jews ("international bankers"), feminists ("breakdown of the family and gender roles"), and gays (you know what they say about us).

Some of this language and these ideas are mirrored in the rhetoric of mainstream right wing groups, such as the Christian Coalition, and some of the new Republican members of Congress, like Rep. Helen Chenoweth of Idaho.

The militiamen, like mainstream rightists, believe that education is in ruins because of political correctness and secular humanism; they oppose government programs for the poor; denounce gay-lesbian-bisexual people; and often scapegoat minorities as immoral and unproductive. They say we are all destroying God, family, and country, and use this to justify super-authoritarian measures to control or eliminate us.

Samuel Sherwood of the United States Militia Association, based in Blackfoot, Idaho, says of President Bill Clinton, "[He] is determined to seize your guns, steal your food, take your children away. In his term, he will have killed more babies than Hitler, put more homosexuals in government than Sodom and Gomorrah, had the schools teach your children it is right and forced you to accept it."

In Michigan, the head of the effort to place an anti-gay initiative on last year's state ballot used the rhetoric of the militia movement as he advanced the anti-gay measure. In an interview two years ago with Metro Times, a Michigan weekly newspaper, George Matousek described the importance of his anti-gay initiative in battling the threat of the New World Order.

"Where sodomy is acceptable, the nation declines? Matousek said. "Homosexuals are a tool to weaken America. I love this country and I want it to remain strong... The homosexual movement will destroy the military. Soon half of the troops will be gone. They don't want to serve beside queers. And the half that's left will be useless-made up of women and homos, people who can't fight their way out of a paper bag. When this happens, we'll be doomed. We'll be attacked, or called into a war that our military can't handle. Clinton, or whoever's in office, will turn all our troops over to the United Nations. And this country won't exist anymore."

Matousek's plan? "Step one, stop the homos."

Only the U.S. Constitution and armed citizens will prevent such a takeover, according to Matousek. Which is why he advocatesall citizens owning guns.

Matousek expressed frustration at the stagnating economy and how that inspired his actions. "When I grew up... I could get a job

with any factory I wanted. I could earn money. Now, with the international bankers in control, there's so much socialist thinking. Work, work, work-but never really own anything, because of taxes." The solution is "armed revolution...I believe that we're headed for this someday."

This is what the militias are, and what they represent. As we mourn together over the tragedy in Oklahoma City, we must not allow our grief to blind us to the continuing threat of the militias and the right wing movement to which they belong.

We need to get down to business and educate ourselves about the wide array of

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right wing groups that threaten our rights and security, and understand the social and economic factors that lead to their development. We must further understand that our fates as gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are inextricably tied to other groups under right wing attack.

It's time to reach out, broaden our agenda, and increase our capacities for compassion and human connection. We must overcome fear, come out, and organize, organize, organize.

Scot Nakagawa is a field organizer for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

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