New T-Shirt Shows Solidarity With Lesbian Farmers

Rush Limbaugh's rant that the Obama administration intends to flood conservative rural areas with lesbian farmers has inspired not only a musical tribute but an "America Needs Lesbian Farmers" T-shirt.

T-shirt maker Raygun unveiled the shirt on its Facebook page Thursday. It's bright green with gold lettering and sells for $21.

News of the Department of Agriculture's outreach program to rural LGBT people, designed to increase awareness of helpful government nonprofit programs, had Limbaugh warning that the federal government was attacking conservative values and conspiring to fill rural enclaves with LGBT liberals.

Ignoring the fact that there already are LGBT people throughout rural America, the right-wing host raved on his radio show, "Here comes the Obama regime with a bunch of federal money and they're waving it around, and all you gotta do to get it is be a lesbian and want to be a farmer and they'll set you up. I'm like you; I never before in my life knew that lesbians wanted to be farmers. I never knew that lesbians wanted to get behind the horse and the plow and start burrowing. I never knew it. ... The objective here is to attack rural states."

On its blog, Raygun lampooned Limbaugh's fear that lesbian farmers would turn red states blue. "Tip an entire state's electorate?" the post asked. "How many lesbian farmers will their be?! And why can't they move to agricultural states that are already Blue, like Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, or Iowa? Is Obama making the lesbians move to Nebraska to farm?"

The Department of Agriculture is holding a series of rural LGBT summits in partnership with the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Fund. Local groups often participate as well; last week's summit in Des Moines included Drake University and the LGBT group One Iowa, The Des Moines Register reports.

"One Iowa's executive director, Donna Red Wing, said the Department of Agriculture is not giving out special money specifically to LGBT people," the Register notes. "They are focused on ensuring that everyone understands what the Department of Agriculture does, including the LGBT community."

"This is really the new normal," Red Wing told the newspaper. "If you're going to talk about rural America, you need to talk to LGBT people. It's about equal recognition and equal treatment. The latest census shows that there are LGBT people living in 99 percent of America's counties."

And if you want to increase their numbers or simply show support, you can order your "America Needs Lesbian Farmers" T-shirt here.