Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"[...] The issue of gay and lesbian rights was always a cash cow, because there was much fear and misunderstanding about gays, a tiny and often invisible minority at the time. AIDS only exacerbated that, as the right exploited a panic over the epidemic and further stigmatized gays as diseased, dirty and disgusting. Radical right groups promoted fear and ignorance, putting money in their coffers for the larger ideological battles they were waging against women's right to choose, secular society, free speech and what they saw as widespread sexual immorality -- battles that have re-energized them over the years and which they are still waging, sometimes with alarming success (as evidenced by recent anti-abortion legislation in the states), using the Republican Party to do it.

"Today, with Hawaii on the verge of becoming the 16th state to pass marriage equality, and with gays much more visible, conservative ideologues are having a harder time on the issue, including trying to raise money around it. But it doesn't mean they're any less ferociously focused on taking away the rights of gays -- or women, or Muslims, or atheists or any other group that doesn't fit their Christian theocratic worldview.

"Enter transgender rights, the newest potential cash cow for the extremist right. [...]"

-- Michelangelo Signorile, "What the National Organization for Marriage's Shift to Trans-Bashing Means", 2013-11-12