Look Who's Infiltrating Eastern Europe

This from the Advocate.com.

Many prominent U.S. conservative groups are shifting their attention overseas this week, attending a conference in Poland that will decry Europe's liberal social policies and portray the host nation as a valiant holdout bucking those trends.

The World Congress of Families is expected to draw more than 2,500 people from dozens of countries to Warsaw's Palace of Culture and Science from Friday through Sunday.

Cosponsors of the congress include the American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, the Heritage Foundation, and the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, which promotes the ''intelligent design'' concept of the universe's origins. The U.S. groups are allied in opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage, and other policies they blame for weakening traditional families in Western Europe.

Boy, is that a rogues gallery of right-wingers or what?

The chief organizer is a Rockford, Ill.–based conservative think tank, the Howard Center. ''Europe is almost lost—to demographic winter and to the secularists,'' says a planning document for the congress. ''If Europe goes, much of the world will go with it. Almost alone, Poland has maintained strong faith and strong families.''

The congress, even in its planning stages, has been derided by liberal groups.

''It's a jamboree for people who very often find themselves outside the mainstream,'' said Jon O'Brien, president of Catholics for a Free Choice. ''They're living the fantasy for a couple of days of what the world would be like if their ideas prevailed.''

O'Brien, a native of Ireland now based in Washington, D.C., said Poland's conservative bent is at odds with most of the continent.

''American conservative groups don't find much succor in Europe,'' he said. ''It's moved on, toward tolerance and respect for how people live their lives, for people who are gay, single parents, different forms of family.''

GLBT people have generally fared better across the pond than their counterparts in the United States. Let's hope those who would spread their hate and bigotry across that continent meet with little or, preferably, no success.