GunRightsAcrAmerica ‏@GRAAmerica 11h Thoughts? @GayPatriot @Gay_Cynic "@DLoesch: Bill Maher: "There is a gay mafia ..."

The link hauls you over to Real Clear Politics and the original article.

The answer is "Not exactly and it's not that simple."

To understand what some folks call the "gay mafia" you need to both appreciate some of the factors in the psychology and history of the LGBT community, and to realize that the LGBT community couldn't pull off a "mafia" on its best day.

We're just not that organized, and trying to impose organization is not well received.

The modern LGBT community in the United States emerged amidst the Civil Rights Movement - from the ashes of the Stonewall Riots.

Our first successful leaders were folks from the left and the outer edges of society. It wasn't the polite sorts that conformed that broke the ground for equal rights - it was our hippies, drag queens, and leather queens with the occasional social justice warrior (back when social justice was something other than victim herding). We were led by a rowdy crowd of rabid indivualists of a leftist persuasion (you could still do that, then), misfits and rebels - held together by equal portions of hope and fury.

Jumping ahead several chapters, you might recall that the LGBT community - particularly the gay community - suffered a serious epidemic during the 80's and 90's that gut shot an entire generation of potential leaders, forcing the "old warhorses" to remain in harness and folks more than a little green into leadership roles before their time. My take is that this will sort itself out in a couple of more decades, but today we still have an odd combination of "impassioned 70's radical" and "pseudo-occupy" fairly predominant.

Neither has to talk amongst themselves to be grimly unforgiving of those who attack the community. That's a good thing, because unless under direct threat...we don't necessarily play well together at an organizational level.

Let's not forget Prop. 8 in California was not merely an initiative battle - proponents waged a war of vicious slurs and vile implication upon the entire LGBT community. While I don't usually cite Slate as anything other than an online bird cage liner, in this case they get it right in their review of the Prop 8 campaign.

 Just to rub salt in the wound, Prop 8 was launched in response to the much trumpeted ruling by the California Supreme Court holding that barring LGBT marriage violated the constitution...and before the first ad was run, Prop 8 was pissing in the wheaties of a celebratory moment with a message of "I'm sorry, we're going to keep on discriminating against your relationships and families."

Under the best of circumstances, that would not be well received. The campaign tactics of proponents were gasoline upon an already well-stoked fire.

Those of you who know me well have, on occasion, heard me hint that "never, EVER mess with a drag queen" was a really good rule to follow. The same holds true, in spades, for a minority community activist that you've persuaded that you're in support of a return of the Klan or the next best thing.

Things well and truly hit the fan and, frankly, I am forced to say that those who supported Prop 8 largely worked really hard (or allowed those that represented them to do so) to build a large and quite possibly permanently angry fan base amongst the LGBT community. I find it difficult to sympathize with them.

An ill-fitting analogy might be to contemplate the response of other communities were David Duke appointed the CEO of Ford. It seems reasonable to expect that would not go well.

Thus it is with former Brendan Eich and his $1,000 Prop 8 donation. No gay mafia required (I'd rather herd cats cross-bred with scorpions than try to organize such a thing) - just a whole bunch of abidingly angry people with long memories.

More generally? It's been less than 50 years since it was illegal for three gay folks to gather in a NY bar. It's been less than 5 years since the Atlanta Police raided the Atlanta Eagle (from what I understand, the lawsuits are proceeding merrily along). Bashings still happen.

As a community we've learned smiling sweetly and saying thank you when attacked is often an invitation to a swift kick in the teeth. Calling B**s***t and firing up the protestors and waking up the lawyers? Not so much.

Instead, for everyone with three or more neurons to rub together and any sense of history the lesson that making it very clear that harassing LGBT folk is neither a good nor safe choice promotes ones individual and community safety (it's not a BUNCH more fun if it's your friend getting bashed rather than you..).

Your mileage may vary. I calls them like I see them. I can't say I'm thrilled with Mr. Eichs debacle, but neither can I honestly say I'm astonishingly traumatized. Mr. Eichs had every right to make that donation - and the Mozilla staffers had every right to loudly and enthusiastically share their dismay based on that donation. Looks suspiciously like grown-ups playing amongst themselves with the polite masks of PC off.