Bradley Manning - The Cowardice of Gay Inc.

[huffingtonpost / 28.02.2013] One of the signature traits of LGBT subculture in the United States is its adoration of celebrity. If a well-known person voices the most milquetoast notion that gays are human beings, let alone deserving of legal equality, banner headlines in the gay press are guaranteed. If the celebrity comes out as gay, even more effusive coverage is given.

So why is it that all of the big gay nonprofits, from the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) -- "Gay Inc." -- have failed to utter a word of support for Private Bradley Manning, let alone really campaign for him? He's gay, has moderately high name recognition, and unlike any number of airhead celebrities, he's actually done something to support social justice, rather than mined charitable causes for personal fame and fortune.

Bradley Manning's great sin, in the view of the gay NGOs, was in exposing not just the depravity of the Bush administration's foreign policy, but Barack Obama's as well. The fact that it is Obama's Justice Department that is prosecuting Manning makes it so much the worse. That his Justice Department has prosecuted more whistle-blowers than the combined total of every President who preceded him is a particular embarrassment.

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