Incoming House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor have thrown the weight of government into efforts by the Religious Right to shut down an acclaimed art exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery. The Hide/Seek exhibit explores evolving expressions of sexuality in art. The Religious Right — in this instance led by the always-hysterical Bill Donohue and his fringe Catholic League — and its allies in Congress have been quick to try to whip their base into a fervor over themes they didn’t even try to understand before condemning as “anti-Christian.”

Cantor ludicrously said the exhibit is an intentional attempt to offend Christians during the Christmas season. And Boehner, Cantor and other right-wing leaders have attacked the exhibit as a questionable use of taxpayer money, even though Smithsonian exhibits — including this one — are privately funded. They are now threatening to go after Smithsonian public funding and even to launch investigations into Smithsonian exhibits.

Tell the House Republican Leadership to stay out of the censorship game and to keep their hands off Smithsonian funding.

After you sign the petition to Reps. Boehner and Cantor, you’ll be asked to call the National Portrait Gallery and urge administrators there to stand strong against the Right in defense of free expression.

The Gallery was quick to cave on one piece of the Hide/Seek exhibit which was singled out by the Right: a video which included an 11-second segment depicting a Crucifix with ants crawling on it, a statement about the suffering of AIDS victims at the time the video was produced. The video, by the artist David Wojnarowicz, who himself died of AIDS in 1992, had been on display for a month without a single complaint from any museum attendees. The only complaints the Portrait Gallery received about the video or any parts of the exhibit were from Religious Right activists from around the country who had not actually seen the art. In a twist of sad irony, these activists were successful in getting the video taken down exactly one day before World AIDS Day. Hide/Seek is a courageous exhibit, but it’s an outrage that the Portrait Gallery would not show equal courage in defending the exhibit in its entirety against right-wing censorship.

We need to speak up to make sure that there are no more capitulations by the Smithsonian, and to make sure that Republican congressional leaders don’t get away with their ridiculous political pandering to the radical Religious Right.

Please add your voice to the growing chorus of Americans who are speaking out against this latest right-wing attack.

Reps. Boehner and Cantor, along with virtually ever other congressional Republican leader, are working hard to block all business on Capitol Hill… holding the country hostage by insisting that no much-needed measures be passed until the Bush tax cuts are extended for the richest 2% of Americans… and all the while attacking the president for not doing enough to create jobs. Yet THIS is how they want to spend their time and taxpayer dollars — kowtowing to right-wing zealots like Bill Donohue by attacking the arts and investigating museums.

Shame on them.

Sincerely,

Michael Keegan, President